Audible agreed that it will not enable the Captions feature “for all audiobooks for which Publishers own, or are the exclusive licensee of, the text or audiobook rights” until a Federal Court rules on the publishers’ motion for a preliminary injunction. Note importantly, however, that “Publishers” in this order is limited to the seven named plaintiffs who brought the suit only. Having given that promise, formalized as an order of the court, the parties agreed to move the expedited hearing — initially set for September 5, given Audible’s intention to launch Captions on September 10. But the timetable remains quick […]
Legal
Hearing Set For Publishers’ Lawsuit, As Audible Responds with Disingenuous Statement
The Federal Court for New York’s Southern District agreed that the seven AAP publishers filing suit against Audible on Friday “demonstrated good cause for the setting of an expedited briefing schedule” due to Audible’s plan to launch Captions on or about September 10. A hearing was set before Judge Paul Crotty for the afternoon of September 5 for arguments on issuing a preliminary injunction blocking the new feature. In the meantime, Audible has until the end of the day Wednesday to file papers replying to the suit, and publishers have until September 3 to respond to those arguments. Late Friday, […]
AAP Sues Audible to Block Captions Initiative
When publishers first objected to Audible’s Captions initiative, which shows listeners a computer-generated transcription of the text of an audiobook as they listen, the company’s unsympathetic response was effectively, “we think this is great; if you object, you’ll have to sue us.” On Friday, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) did just that, filing suit in New York’s Southern District, asking the court to block the feature. AAP members Chronicle Books, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster are all named as plaintiffs. With Audible expected to formally launch Captions on September 10, […]
Briefs
People At Random House Children’s, Laura Hernandez joins as associate manager, digital marketing. She was previously marketing coordinator at DK. Nicole Valdez joins as marketing & publicity manager for Random House Graphic. She was previously publishing publicity specialist for DC Entertainment. Carol Ly has joined the middle-grade design team as senior designer. She was previously senior designer for Macmillan Children’s. Pep Carrera has joined ProQuest as president of its books business unit, which provides “flexible models and integrated technologies that make the acquisition and management of books cost-effective and efficient.” He was president and coo at Ingram’s VitalSource. Distribution McSweeney‘s […]
Delaware Court Rejects Move to Block Barnes & Noble Education’s Meeting
The Delaware Chancery Court rejected a dissident shareholder’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking Barnes & Noble Education’s annual meeting. Sunil Suri at Bay Capital Finance has been trying to nominate four directors for election to the bookseller’s board, but he acquired stock too late to qualify. Vice Chancellor Kathaleen S. McCormick said, “Bay Capital blew the deadline. It then made up excuses for doing so. Nothing in the record suggests the company [BNED] was in any way at fault.” She called conflicts and flaws in the complaint “a little bit shocking.” According to Law360’s account of the hearing, the court […]
People, Etc.
At Flatiron, Bryn Clark has been promoted to editor and Sarah Murphy to executive editor. Agnes Ahlander Turner has been promoted to executive vice president at Maria B. Campbell Associates, and Beniamino Ambrosi and Johanna Gustavsson both been named vice president. In the UK, Noel Murphy will join Granta Books and Granta Magazine as commercial director starting September 23. He was previously sales and marketing director at Yale University Press. Imprints Orion will launch Dash, a digital fiction imprint, this fall, run by commissioning editor Victoria Oundjian. Bookselling April Newton (£8.37 an hour), Kimi Wright (£8.71 an hour), Stefan Pace […]