Legal

More than a decade after being sued over an unauthorized sequel to Catcher in the Rye, Fredrik Colting is the co-defendant in a new lawsuit over turning four classic novels into illustrated children’s books without permission. The complaint, filed in New York federal court Thursday by Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and various literary estates, asserts that Colting and co-defendant Melissa Medina have infringed copyright on Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. The plaintiffs assert in their 42-page […]

The sudden shutdown of romance ebook publishing and distribution company All Romance at the end of 2016 left many authors and publishers shortchanged, with an email from the company offering 10 cents on the dollar for distributed books for sales up through December 27 and nothing but reversion for books they published. In response, author Brenda Cothern has filed suit seeking class-action status against the company and its owner, Lori James. The complaint seeks damages in excess of $15,000 for “unpaid commissions, as well as injunctive relief to enjoin the defendants from misappropriating the ebooks which had been entrusted to them.” The […]

Earlier this week an anonymous Google employee sued over internal confidentiality policies that run the gamut from spying on employees to writing novels without the company’s approval, saying they breach California labor laws. The suit, first reported on by The Information, “alleges Google runs an internal ‘spying program’ which relies on employees voluntarily reporting other employees who might have leaked information.” The John Doe plaintiff, employed as a product manager at Google, is suing under a California provision that allows employees to sue on behalf of other co-workers. Should the plaintiff win, the state would receive 75 percent of the […]