Defendant publishers and booksellers in the antitrust lawsuit brought by a group of independent college bookstores filed a motion on April 24 to dismiss all claims. McGraw-Hill, Cengage, and Pearson, along with Barnes & Noble Education and Follett, argue that selling digital Inclusive Access courseware solely through BN Ed and Follett stores isn’t anti-competitive or a “long-running conspiracy,” as the plaintiffs had alleged in their complaint, filed in January. The reality, the publishers maintain, is that they have legitimately increased competition through their digital offerings, and indie bookstores have failed to keep up. Inclusive Access, they say, is “both procompetitive […]
Legal
LSC Communications Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
As long expected, the book industry’s largest printer LSC Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. (If you didn’t know the reality, you would have breezed by the innocuous sounding press release they issued, “LSC Communications Takes Action to Strengthen Its Liquidity and Improve Its Capital Structure,” which is brimming with unwarranted optimism.) The company has commitments for $100 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, and says it will continue operating “in the ordinary course” and “intends to pay vendors in full under customary terms for all goods […]
LSC Reported to be Shopping Bankruptcy Financing, As Some Workers Have Virus
As we have reported previously, LSC Communications is expected to file for bankruptcy protection shortly. (According to Bloomberg, they have been working with bankers at Evercore and attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.) In the latest indication, earlier this week the WSJ reported on tightening terms in the debtor-in-possession financing market, as lawyers and advisers “say they expect a deluge of debt restructurings and chapter 11 filings due to the massive disruption caused by the novel coronavirus.” DIP financing usually comes with lots of protection and collateral for the lenders, but these uncertain times are “turning what looked like sure bets […]
Influential Senator Tells Internet Archive They Are Acting Outside of the Law
Reaffirming that no serious or informed person believes the Internet Archive’s self-proclaimed “National Emergency Library” is legal, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on intellectual property, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, sent a letter to IA founder Brewster Kahle. “I am not aware of any measure under copyright law that permits a user of copyrighted works to unilaterally create an emergency act,” Tillis writes. “Indeed, I am deeply concerned that your ‘Library’ is operating outside of the boundaries of the copyright law that Congress has enacted and alone has jurisdiction to amend.” Tillis notes, “I deeply value […]
Authors Guild Joins Opposition to Internet Archive’s Uncontrolled Lending
On Friday the Authors Guild joined the AAP in expressing outrage at the Internet Archive’s self-declared “emergency” powers to lend scanned, copyright books around the world without limitations. “IA has no rights whatsoever to these books, much less to give them away indiscriminately without consent of the publisher or author. We are shocked that the Internet Archive would use the Covid-19 epidemic as an excuse to push copyright law further out to the edges, and in doing so, harm authors, many of whom are already struggling.” Authors Guild president Doug Preston says in their post, “IA’s Open Library is giving […]
Internet Archive Grants Itself Emergency Copyright Powers for Uncontrolled Digital Lending
“To make a real difference for the nation and the world,” the Internet Archive unilaterally granted itself emergency powers to lend a corpus of over 1.4 million ebooks without any restrictions, contrary to its own stated policies. They are calling it a “National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners,” lasting at least through June 30. In a modest concession, authors can opt their books out [send an email to info@archive.org with National Emergency Library Removal Request as the subject line. Please include each URL of the book or books you would like to have removed]. They also “recognize […]