Amazon recently filed suit in the Northern District of California against a number of people and companies “that falsely claim affiliation with Amazon services, including Amazon Publishing and Kindle Direct Publishing.” The company asserts in the complaint: “Defendants run an international scam operation that deceives authors into paying for fraudulent and materially substandard services under the guise that they are affiliated with Amazon by using logos that are confusingly similar or nearly identical to Amazon’s distinctive trademarks. While Amazon has already taken swift action to shut down many of Defendants’ websites, Defendants—at least ten individuals and eight entities—continue to register […]
Legal
Gendell and McGuigan Agree to Payment of Some Commissions
There has been one modest point of agreement in the long-running legal disputes between former Foundry Media Partners Yfat Reiss Gendell and Peter McGuigan. The parties agreed on the least contentious issue before the court: Payment to McGuigan of almost $500,000 in commissions earned from 2020 through 2023. Additional commissions of almost $200,000 from 2016 to 2019 are still in dispute, as are the larger claims and counter-claims between the two. The court has scheduled an evidentiary hearing on December 20 regarding the period still in dispute, and to assess damages, if any, for the failure to previously approve those […]
Scribe Media Complaint Revised to Add Enduring Ventures
A class action lawsuit against Scribe Media has been revised to add Enduring Ventures, the company that recently acquired Scribe’s assets. A total of 87 employees, including Alyssa Cormier, Claire Brudner, Marianna Acosta, and Esty Pittman are suing Scribe and Enduring Ventures for violating the WARN Act, which “required Scribe to provide Plaintiffs and Class Members with at least sixty (60) days advance written notice of a mass layoff or plant closure.” The lawsuit is one of several in process against the company, which laid off a large portion of its staff over the summer and then sought a buyer […]
Texas Court Hearing Delayed to Nov. 29
After plaintiffs in the Texas READER law case asked for a ontinuance due to a scheduling conflict, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit updated the schedule for the state’s appeal. Now the case will not be fully briefed until November 20, with oral arguments scheduled for November 29 (previously scheduled for November 8). In the meantime, the book banning law remains in place, even though Judge Alan D. Albright issued an injunction and ruled the law unconstitutional in September. The merits panel can rule on the stay of the injunction at any time, from when they get the […]
Texas Court Sets November 8 Hearing
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Texas has agreed to expedite oral arguments in the appeal of the preliminary injunction blocking the state of Texas’s cumbersome “READER” book banning law. (The injunction was stayed pending appeal, meaning the law is in force until further action from the appeals court.) A full schedule has the case due to be fully briefed by November 3.
Authors Respond to OpenAI’s Defense
Attorneys for authors Paul Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Christopher Golden, and Richard Kadrey have filed a new brief in their lawsuit against OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, refuting the company’s initial defense. Last month OpenAI moved to dismiss the plaintiffs’ “ancillary” claims, hoping to focus on the core question of copyright infringement. In response, the plaintiffs ask the court to dismiss the motion, and “challenge OpenAI’s position that it should be allowed to train its generative AI products using anyone’s name and copyrighted literary works, without consent, for free, forever.” “In this case, the copyrighted works of a class of millions […]