Last week professor of engineering at the University of Louisiana – Lafayette and author of multiple engineering textbooks Russell Hibbeler filed suit in a Tennessee Federal Court against Pearson, alleging significant underpaid and/or unpaid royalties and charging the publisher with creating derivative works with permission and payment. (Hibbeler lives in Nashville.) The suit is of potentially broad interest given the extent but also the nature of Professor Hibbeler’s claims. In a 2015 audit from the Royalty Compliance Organization, Hibbeler says they discovered “significant underpayments and non- payments of royalties and other compensation due.” As part of the audit, “Pearson discovered […]
Legal
Bookselling: New Stores, Financial and Legal Updates
After closing last fall, Guide to Kulchur will reopen in Cleveland, OH this month as a bookstore with a “black box space” next door. Founder RA Washington told Cleveland Scene that, with the support of local foundation, he hopes to make the new enterprise a non-profit organization. In addition to bookselling, his goals for the non-profit include “providing books to prisoners; operating GTK Press, a small press for insurgent literature and marginalized voices; and curating speakers and performers in the black box space.” Neighborhood Reads is holding a grand opening in downtown Washington, MS today. And earlier this month, Brick & Mortar […]
Northwestern Student Sues Harper and Author Kipnis Over Unwanted Advances Book
A Northwestern University graduate student filed a Jane Doe lawsuit in an Illinois Federal Court on Monday against author Laura Kipnis and publisher HarperCollins over the publication of Unwanted Advances. The suit alleges counts of public disclosure of private facts that “were not of legitimate public concern,” false light invasion of privacy, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The filing claims that Kipnis wrote the book “in part, to retaliate against plaintiff for her filing of a Title IX complaint against her colleague [Peter] Ludlow and for her subsequent complaint against Kipnis.” Saying that “Kipnis had a clear motive to […]
EU Formalizes Amazon eBook Antitrust Agreement
The European Commission formally adopted “commitments” from Amazon to avoid legal charges and potential fines for violating antitrust law with their ebook contracts. Hewing closely to the proposed settlement announced in late January, with some slight modifications, Amazon agrees to drop a broad range of restrictive most-favored-nations clauses in their ebook contracts in Europe for the next 5 years. Notably, the agreement pertains not just to European companies, but “to any e-book in any language distributed by Amazon in the European Economic Area.” EC commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager said in a statement: “Today’s decision will open the way […]
California Consumer Sues Audible Over Subscription Terms
A California consumer filed suit in the state’s Central District Federal Court against Audible and Amazon, seeking class action status, on behalf of “consumers who find themselves trapped in a shell game.” The suit objects to differences between how Audible allegedly advertises its membership program, and how the program works in fact. (The ads on which part of the case rests are not submitted with the complaint.) The plaintiff says he was promised his audio credits would “never expire” — except that they do expire if and when you cancel. He objects to limitations on how many credits you can accrue and […]
Legal: European Court Disallows Lower Tax for eBooks, Harper Responds In Canada
Responding to a query brought by the Polish Constitutional Court, the European Court of Justice has ruled that member states may not apply a lower value added tax to downloadable ebooks or other publications — even though lower taxes are allowed for books and other publications that are printed (and in turn, even digital books delivered by a physical medium, such as CD-ROM). The Court found that “to accept that the Member States are able to apply a reduced rate of VAT to the supply of digital books electronically, as is permitted for the supply of such books on all physical means of […]