Legal

Judge Valerie Caproni denied the request to keep sealed the details of the settlement agreement between the seven litigating publishers and Audible in the lawsuit over the Captions initiative. She noted, “The public has a presumptive right to judicial documents” and “in this case, the parties have not demonstrated competing interests sufficient” to go against general practice. That presents the parties with a choice: By February 21, they need to either submit proposed redactions to the judge, or else drop their request for the court to retain jurisdiction over enforcement of the agreement. Judge Caproni warned that, “At this juncture, […]

A Vermont Federal Court judge has ruled that a Chooseco’s lawsuit against Netflix for using its Choose Your Own Adventure brand in its interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch can proceed, by denying Netflix’s motion to dismiss. Released in late 2018, Bandersnatch asks viewers to choose which direction the plot takes, and features visual branding and dialogue that explicitly evokes the popular ’80s book series. Netflix is alleged to have originally pursued a license, and then to have gone forward without one. Chooseco sued for $25 million in damages in January 2019, alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition, and dilution of its […]

Following our exclusive report that the seven publishers and Audible had filed a proposed permanent injunction with the court that would end the lawsuit over the Audible Captions feature, the AAP released a brief statement that expands the scope of the settlement. AAP president and ceo Maria A. Pallante said in a written statement: “AAP, the plaintiffs, and Audible have resolved their pending litigation. Audible has agreed that it will obtain permission from any AAP members that are in good standing with AAP before moving forward with Audible Captions for their works.” As that statement suggests, the parties reached and […]

The seven publishers who sued Audible to block their proposed Captions feature that scrolled machine-generated text along with the audio “have resolved their dispute.” The parties filed a proposed permanent injunction and request for dismissal with prejudice with Judge Valerie Caproni. The settlement represents a complete victory for the publishers — Audible cannot “caption” copyrighted content without permission. The injunction confirms Audible is prohibited from “creating, generating, reproducing, modifying, distributing, publishing, or displaying…written text derived from the audiobook versions of publishers’ works for any product or service created or offered by Audible…without express authorization from the owners or exclusive licensees […]

A group of independent college bookstores have filed a class-action antitrust lawsuit against McGraw-Hill, Cengage, and Pearson, who together control 80 percent of the higher education textbook market, and against college bookselling chains Barnes & Noble Education and Follett, who are dubbed their “co-conspirators.” At issue are the publishers’ “inclusive access” programs, digital-only course materials that the plaintiffs say publishers sell exclusively to Barnes & Noble and Follett, cutting independent retailers out. According to the suit, the list of institutions where indies were blocked from buying and selling inclusive access in 2019 included the University of New Mexico, Eastern Kentucky […]