Two publishing executives confirm to the WSJ that they have received “a civil investigative demands” from the Justice Department as it requests more information as part of their evaluation of the pending Google Book Search settlement. An anonymous executive says, “They are looking at all aspects of the proposed settlement. It shouldn’t be overblown.” Attorney for the Authors Guild Michael Boni subsequently tells the NYT that CIDs have gone to the Guild, the AAP, Google, and a number of publishers. “They are asking for a lot of information,” Boni says. “It signals that they are serious about the antitrust implications […]
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US Attorney Fitzgerald Threatens Harper with Defamation Suit Over Revised Paperback of Book on Terrorism Cases
In other legal news, federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald threatened to sue HarperCollins in a letter to the publisher about their forthcoming new edition of Peter Lance’s TRIPLE CROSS: How bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI. (The new paperback is said to contain “26 additional pages and an introduction responding to Fitzgerald.”) Fitzgerald tells the AP “the book lied about the facts and alleged that I deliberately misled the courts and the public in ways that in part caused the deaths in the 1998 embassy bombing attacks and in the attacks of Sept. 11, […]
Legal News: No Steinbeck Appeal; Larsson Estate Fight; Judge to Decide on TrumpNation Trial
Yesterday the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from John Steinbeck’s son Thomas and grandson Blake Smyle of last year’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that left control of the author’s copyrights with his widow Elaine and publisher Penguin under the terms of a 1994 agreement. In a statement, Thomas Steinbeck expressed “profound disappointment,” adding that “the Supreme Court could have protected all the authors and artists in America from a future of intellectual bondage to big corporate publishers.” He insists the denial does “not mean that the Second Circuit was correct, it only means that the Supreme […]
HBG Adds Speakers Bureau
Hachette Book Group has joined the likes of Macmillan, Harper, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Knopf in officially launching the Hachette Speakers Bureau. Like S&S, they are working in partnership with Greater Talent Network. Participating HBG authors include Christopher Buckley, John Feinstein, Christopher Hitchens, Sir Harold Evans, Charla Krupp, and Dr. Bill and Martha Sears,
Environmental Coalition Sets Goals for Greener Publishing
The Book Industry Environmental Council said today they hope to reduce the US book publishing industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent as of 2020 (and 80 percent by 2050). They estimate meeting the 2020 goal will save “the equivalent annual emissions of approximately 450,000 cars.” Chair of the climate subcommittee and Hachette Book Group vp Pete Datos says in the statement, “I’m very pleased that our industry has set aggressive but achievable goals that will have tangible benefits and will surely set a precedent for other industries.” Chaired by Random House and coordinated by the nonprofit GreenPress Initiative, the […]
After GBLT and Erotica Titles Lose Rankings and Other Features at Amazon, Company Says "Glitch" Will Be Fixed
A groundswell of Internet-driven protest built up on Sunday after YA author Mark Probst posted on a Live Journal blog that two days prior the Amazon sales ranking for two recently-released gay romance books had disappeared from the titles’ Amazon pages. An Amazon Advantage publisher, Probst posted the explanation he says he received from Amazon Advantage Member Services representative Ashlyn D: “In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude ‘adult’ material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.” As word […]