The Supreme Court’s consideration of Apple’s petition to have the high court hear an appeal of the verdict against them in the ebook pricing antitrust case is currently in limbo. As we reported previously, the Supreme Court Conference for which the case was originally scheduled, on Friday, February 19, was cancelled while the late Justice Antonin Scalia lay in repose. Some accounts mistakenly assumed and posted that Apple’s case would be considered at today’s Conference instead, but from all indications a new hearing date has not been set yet. The Supreme Court case docket was updated on the 24th to indicate […]
Legal
Briefs: Hachette Book Group Sues Mottola: Lord of the Rings Coloring Book; and More
Hachette Book Group is suing music executive Tommy Mottola, seeking to recover a $150,000 advance for a memoir they say he never completed. The deal was announced in late 2010 and the manuscript had been due in 2012. The filing is not publicly available yet, but Page Six says “the publisher claims Mottola reneged on finishing the manuscript by April 2012 — even though Hachette offered twice to extend the deadline.” Forthcoming Following the death of author Umberto Eco, Italian publisher La Nave di Teseo (The Ship of Theseus) will release a collection of magazine essays he wrote for Italian weekly […]
Supreme Court Postpones February 19 Conference; Appeals Court Affirms $450m Apple Settlement; Docs from the IRS Amazon Case
The Supreme Court has postponed its February 19 conference, when they were scheduled to consider Apple’s request to hear an appeal of the ebook antitrust case, as that day will be taken up by a ceremony for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last weekend. The court has also postponed its regularly scheduled orders for Monday, February 22. Separately, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the proposed settlement between Apple and the Department of Justice that could award as much as $400 million to ebook customers affected by the price-fixing lawsuit. The appeal, brought on behalf of plaintiff […]
Briefs: Clare’s Lawyer Responds to Kenyon Lawsuit; “Birthday Cake” Author Speaks Out; and More
Cassandra Clare‘s lawyer, John Cahill of Cahill Associates, issued a statement Thursday afternoon responding to Sherrilyn Kenyon’s trademark and copyright infringment lawsuit filed against Clare late last week. “Cassie was both surprised and disappointed that Ms. Kenyon would file this baseless lawsuit, a decade after the debut of Cassie’s books. Kenyon is wrong when she claims that Cassandra Clare or her publisher made any agreements about using ‘shadowhunters.’ Cassie never gave Kenyon any assurances regarding this and, although she would have preferred to resolve any concerns that Ms. Kenyon has or may have had, Ms. Kenyon never contacted or spoke […]
People, Etc.
At Atria, Ariele Fredman has been promoted to assistant director of publicity; Kathryn Santora has been promoted to senior publicist; Tory Lowy moves up to publicist; and Emily Bamford is now associate publicist. The Texas Book Festival has hired Julie Wernersbach as literary director, starting later this month. She has been marketing director at BookPeople for the past five years. Tammy Brown joins the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators as director, community marketing and engagement, based in Los Angeles, starting March 1. Bonnie Bader work for the organization as a consultant, with the title of publishing advisor, based in New York. Kat Meyer recently joined the Book Industry Study […]
Commerce Department Advises Keeping First Sale Doctrine for Print Only
The Commerce Department’s Internet Policy Task Force issued a white paper on first sale (as well as remixes and statutory damages) that will find favor, or at least relief, among publishers, if not with libraries. The simple conclusion that is that paper advises leaving the first sale doctrine as is and not extending it to digital products, standing with the Copyright Office’s previous findings from way back in 2001. For now, they found that the marketplace is working well in using digital to extend new benefits and options to consumers and unlike the folks over at Justice, Commerce says, “we […]