After a period of quiet, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has set a December 15 date for oral arguments on Apple’s appeal of Judge Denise Cote’s 2013 ruling in the federal ebook antitrust trial. The settlement reached earlier this year between Apple and the plaintiff states and consumers hinges on how the appeals court eventually rules. Apple could pay as much as $450 million if their appeal is denied, or as little as nothing if the appeal is completely reversed. Judge Cote granted preliminary approval to the settlement on August 1 and scheduled a final fairness hearing for November 21.
Legal
Krugman Takes On Amazon
You probably don’t need us to tell you about Nobel Prize-winning economist and NYT op-ed columnist Paul Krugman’s latest piece: “Amazon.com, the giant online retailer, has too much power, and it uses that power in ways that hurt America.” Indirectly answering his NYT colleague Joe Nocera, who wrote, “Amazon plays rough, so what?” and noted “American antitrust law is simply not very concerned with the fate of competitors,” Krugman asserts that for now Amazon is monopsonist rather than a monopolist. “In economics jargon, Amazon is not, at least so far, acting like a monopolist, a dominant seller with the power to […]
Appeals Court Sends Georgia State eReserves Case Back to District Court
The complicated Georgia State University court case exploring the extent to which educational fair use applies to digital excerpts continues, with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturning portions of Judge Orinda Evans’s 350-page ruling from 2012 and remanding the case back to Judge Evans. Finding that “the District Court’s fair use analysis was in part erroneous,” the Appeals Court threw out the awarding of nearly $3 million in legal fees to GSU as well. Though the name plaintiffs are Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Sage Publications, the case was brought — and funded — by the Association […]
Amazon: NYT Public Editor Calls For More Balanced Coverage; Supreme Court to Hear Amazon Workers Lawsuit
On Sunday New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan took issue with the paper’s coverage of Amazon and Hachette’s ongoing terms dispute, opining that the paper (and primarily its Amazon beat reporter, David Streitfeld) “has given a lot of ink to one side” and painted Amazon as “a literature-killing bully.” Addressing one reader’s claims that the coverage amounted to “propaganda,” Sullivan said: “‘Propaganda’ is a stretch, and Mr. Streitfeld has done plenty of solid work. But it’s certainly true that the literary establishment has received a great deal of sympathetic coverage.” Streitfeld and his editor Suzanne Spector told Sullivan they “strived […]
Corporate: PRH Finalizes Objetiva Purchase; Amazon’s WriteOn Beta; Authors Guild Met with DOJ; Core Source Adds Print Metadata
On October 1, Penguin Random House completed their acquisition of Brazilian trade publisher Objetiva, the final piece in their acquisition of the Santillana trade publishing business (the rest of which closed on July 1). As previously announced, CEO of Companhia das Letras Luiz Schwarcz will also oversee Objetiva, and Roberto Feith continues as general director. Amazon’s coming “new reader-powered publishing program” that was reported on a little over a week ago is called WriteOn by Kindle, Laura Owen discovers. The tag line on the beta site is, “Making good stories great and great stories better.” Access for now is by invitation code. An email […]
Ellora’s Cave Sues “Dear Author” and Its Creator, Alleging Defamation
On Friday, Ellora’s Cave and Jasmine Jade Enterprises filed suit in an Ohio state court against the Dear Author blog and its author Jennifer Gerrish-Lampe (writing as Jane Litte), alleging that a September article about the publisher “made false and defamatory statements concerning the companies’ financial stability and practices, insinuating that the companies are on the verge of financial ruin.” The suit further charges that the post “attempts to induce panic in Plaintiff’s authors by stating that Ellora’s will close by the end of the year or is likely to undergo a bankruptcy.” The company says in the suit it […]