Washington district court Judge Marsha J. Pechman granted a temporary restraining order against the ebook piracy site KISS Library, as requested in the suit by Authors Guild members, Amazon Publishing, and PRH. The order freezes the assets and websites. Though the enterprise is based in Ukraine, the order applies to “any funds with their payment processors” attorney John Goldmark told PL. Their main payment processor, FastSpring, is based in California, and some of the domain registrars are also US based, he said. As of at least yesterday, all the domains had already been taken down, though KISS could migrate its […]
Legal
Authors Guild Members, Amazon and PRH Join to Fight Ukrainian Ebook Pirates
A group of Authors Guild members, Amazon Publishing, and Penguin Random House jointly filed a lawsuit in a Washington state federal court against Ukraine-based Kiss Library, alleging that the site flagrantly trades in cheap pirated ebooks. Kiss “is able to offer ‘unbeatable prices’ for a simple reason: its catalogs are replete with pirated ebooks, including titles for which Plaintiffs individually own and/or control exclusive copyrights in theUnited States,” says the complaint. Kiss Library does business under Kissly.net, Libly.net, Cheap-Library.com and other domain names. (Currently, the three named URLs are down.) Author plaintiffs include Lee Child, Sylvia Day, John Grisham, C.J. […]
S&S Moves Up Pub Date for Mary Trump Book
In advance of a July 10 court hearing on the request for a temporary restraining order to delay publication of Mary Trump’s TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH, Simon & Schuster has moved that publication date up to July 14. The change was “due to high demand and extraordinary interest in this book,” the publisher said. Chris Bastardi, spokesperson for Mary Trump, said: “The act by a sitting president to muzzle a private citizen is just the latest in a series of disturbing behaviors which have already destabilized a fractured nation in the face of a global pandemic. If Mary cannot […]
For Now Appeals Court Lifts Publication Block Against Simon & Schuster, But Not Mary Trump
New York State Appeals Court Justice Alan Sheinkman has lifted the order blocking Simon & Schuster from distributing and publishing Mary Trump’s. But like that original order, the relief is temporary as well, lasting until the scheduled Dutchess County Court hearing on July 10. For now, Justice Scheinkman found that “S&S is not a party to” Mary Trump’s settlement agreement with the Trump estate. “Unlike Ms. Trump, S&S has not agreed to surrender or relinquish any of its First Amendment rights. Since the predicate for the plaintiff’s application for a temporary restraining order is the existence of the confidentiality provision […]
Elliott’s Defamation Suit Against Moira Donegan Moves Forward to Limited Discovery
Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall has denied “Sh—y Media Men List” creator Moira Donegan’s motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit against her by Stephen Elliott, one of the men who made the list. Donegan might ultimately be entitled to immunity under the Communications Decency Act, but Judge DeArcy Hall ruled on June 30 that the facts in Elliott’s complaint weren’t sufficient to throw the case out on that basis. Instead, the parties will “proceed without delay to narrowly tailored discovery to address factual issues related to Defendant’s CDA immunity defense. Once such discovery is completed, the parties may move for summary […]
Judge Blocks Mary Trump’s Book Until July 10 Hearing, But It Has Printed and Shipped
New York State Judge Hal B. Greenwald of Dutchess County ordered Mary Trump and her publisher Simon & Schuster to temporarily refrain from “publishing, printing or distributing” her book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man or “any portions thereof.” The order lasts until a full hearing on July 10 on Robert Trump’s request for an injunction blocking publication. Alas, in papers filed with the court later on Tuesday, S&S ceo Jonathan Karp indicated that, “As of today, approximately 75,000 copies have been printed and bound and are ready for publication, thousands of […]