Lexy Bloom has been named senior editor at Knopf, after many years as senior editor for Vintage/Anchor. Stephanie Hitchcock is joining Atria as senior editor. She was most recently editor at Harper and Harper Business. Alexandra Hightower has joined Little, Brown Children’s as associate editor. Previously, she was assistant editor at Delacorte. Chelcee Johns has been promoted to assistant editor at 37 Ink. At Adams Media, Julia Jacques has been promoted to editor; Mary Kate Schulte to publicist; Erin Alexander to senior designer; and Jo-Anne Duhamel to production editor. Skip Dye has been promoted to senior vice president, library sales […]
Legal
Pasternak’s Niece Accuses Novelist Prescott of Plagiarism
Attorneys representing Boris Pasternak’s great-niece Anna Pasternak served notice through a letter to Lara Prescott, author of THE SECRETS WE KEPT, alleging copyright infringement of her 2016 book Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago. According to London’s Sunday Times, Pasternak’s attorneys charge that Prescott’s novel includes “an astonishing number of substantial elements” copied from Pasternak’s nonfiction book. Those similarities, they write, “exceed the mere inspiration a novelist may legitimately draw from a work of non-fiction.” Pasternak also takes issue with Prescott “passing off” her novel as the “untold story” of Boris Pasternak’s longtime mistress. UK […]
Judge Threatens Publishers and Audible with A Quick Trial, With No Immediate Ruling On Injunction
The publishers motioning to enjoin Audible’s new Captions feature left federal Judge Valerie Caproni’s courtroom Wednesday without an answer, as the judge delayed any decision. Toward the end of the two-hour conference, Caproni offered both parties a different kind of swift justice: Go straight to trial on the case, with expedited discovery and Audible holding off of a launch until post-trial. “I’ll give you a trial by the end of the year,” she said. Neither party was excited about that option. Audible’s attorney quietly said she’d have to consult with her client. The publishers’ attorney, Dale Cendali, made a passionate […]
Authors Guild and AAR File Brief Endorsing Publishers’ Suit Against Audible
For only the second time, the Authors Guild and the AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives) joined together to file an amicus brief in support of the seven publishers suing to block Audible Captions. They say the “feature presents a significant threat to the rights and livelihoods of authors and their representatives…. Audible seeks to bypass its glaring infringement of authors’ and publishers’ rights by arguing that this is a contract issue, not a copyright issue and that, in any event, its misappropriation qualifies as fair use.” Significantly, their legal argument is that “Audible completely ignores the Copyright Act’s explicit recognition […]
Publishers Push Back on Audible’s Legal Evasion, Refute Any Educational Benefit from Captions
Publishers replied to Audible’s arguments against a injunction blocking the release of their Captions transcription feature, swatting at the legal arguments as a distraction rather than an answer, and exposing the idea that there is any compelling educational benefit. “Audible’s brief is remarkable for what it admits and fails to rebut, as well as its many misstatements of copyright law.” Audible has already all but self-injuncted, telling independent publishers and authors it has “chosen to wait until the outcome of the [legal] proceeding to release it — “which is exactly what Publishers explained Audible could do to if it wanted […]
Why Audible’s Legal Arguments Fail
Ahead of the formal response from the seven publishers suing Audible for copyright infringement due to their Caption feature, assistant director at the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property and assistant professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University Devlin Hartline provides a preview of the likely arguments. It’s plainly a copyright case and not a contract dispute, as Audible had argued, because “the publishers only claim infringement of the underlying works, that is, the literary works from which the sound recordings of the audiobooks are derived.” It’s the same as if Audible had produced a […]