For those watching the dates, the parties in the publishers’ lawsuit against Audible seeking to block their Captions feature had been expected to report back to the court on the execution of their settlement agreement as of Tuesday, January 21. But in the meantime, based on the previous report that an agreement had been reached, Judge Valeri Caproni went ahead and dismissed the case with prejudice. She left it up to the parties to decide if they “wish for the Court to retain jurisdiction to enforce their settlement agreement.” In that event the settlement agreement would still be submitted to […]
Legal
Parneros Tells the Court His Side of the Story One More Time, with Feeling
Former Barnes & Noble ceo Demos Parneros filed January 15 his opposition documents against Barnes & Noble’s arguably ill-advised motion for summary judgment on two of Parneros’ three claims, defamation and breach of good faith and fair dealing. To succeed with the motion, BN has to prove that there’s no issue of fact when it comes to dismissing those claims. Parneros’ declaration and opposition memo, filed with dozens of pages of internal correspondence and depositions — alas, redacted all — purport to be evidence that BN and Riggio acted in bad faith and did indeed defame him. Parneros’ declaration recounts […]
Barnes & Noble Denies Age Discrimination Claims and Requests Jury Trial
Barnes & Noble has demanded a jury trial to fight former employee Barbara Tavres’ claim that the company violated state and federal labor law by discriminating against her and other employees on the basis of age. In a response filed January 13 in the Northern District of California, BN denied all Tavres’ claims, writing repeatedly that “Plaintiff’s performance reviews speak for themselves.” They insist that no basis for a class action exists, writing that, “Any and all employment actions taken with respect to plaintiff and the putative class were not based on any discriminatory motive or in retaliation for any […]
Audible and Publishers Settle Captions Dispute
After an encouraging update in late December, Audible reports to federal judge Valerie Caproni that the company has finalized a settlement with the seven AAP publishers that sued to block the digital audio company’s planned Captions features. Audible attorney Emily Reisbaum wrote on behalf of all parties on January 13, the date an update had been promised: “We are pleased to inform the Court that the parties have resolved their disputes. The parties respectfully request until January 21 to allow the parties to obtain signatures on the settlement documents and submit them to the Court for its consideration and approval.” […]
People: Kachka to Become LA Times Books Editor, and More
New York magazine and Vulture writer and books editor Boris Kachka is leaving his position to become books editor at the Los Angeles Times. The LAT said in an announcement, “We’re pleased to announce that Boris Kachka is joining The Times as books editor. Boris comes to us from New York magazine, where has been books editor for the last few years, and a writer and editor for two decades…In recent years he has substantially expanded the magazine’s book coverage across all of its verticals, overseeing excerpts, stories on new authors and titles, publishing news, and more.” Julia Turner, deputy […]
People, Etc.
Sharon Shell has joined Independent Publishers Group as director of library & education sales. She was previously director of implementation, sales operations at Scholastic. Daniel O’Connor has been promoted to senior sales manager at Bloomsbury. Jacqui Lipton has founded Raven Quill Literary Agency, representing authors of books for children and young adults. Lipton is an attorney and a law professor, and author of Law & Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers. For people who want to stop by and pay their respects, there will be a viewing of Sonny Mehta on Friday, January 3, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM […]