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Class Action Lawsuit Against Amazon and Publishers Misses the Mark

Juli Monroe — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:52:27 +0000

According to the Huffington Post, three independent bookstores are filing a class action suit against Amazon and the “Big Six” publishers. Alyson Decker of Blecher & Collins PC, lead counsel acting for the bookstores, described DRM as “a problem that affects many independent bookstores.” She said the complaint is still in the process of being served [...]

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Google appeals class action certification in Google Books case

Chris Meadows — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:49:29 +0000

The Google Books lawsuit proceeds apace. paidContent and CNet report that, in Google’s latest filing, the search giant is appealing the court’s decision to certify class action status for the Authors Guild. Google argues that the majority of writers actually approve of its scanning (58% according to a Google-commissioned survey), and that its scanning to [...]

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Department of Justice responds to comments, will not change its settlement terms

Chris Meadows — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 04:03:25 +0000

Today the Department of Justice finally got around to posting over 850 comments it received on its proposed anti-trust settlement with three agency pricing publishers—along with its own response (PDF) to the concerns and issues raised by the comments it received. In summary, the Department of Justice considered all the relevant issues raised by the [...]

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Consumer payout in e-book pricing class-action still some distance away

Chris Meadows — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:31:33 +0000

The Justice Department suit against the publishers and Apple for introducing agency pricing is not seeking damages—just a change in the way publishers price. However, the competing class-action lawsuits filed by various law firms and a number of state attorney generals are seeking damages, and therein lies a bit of a snarl-up. PaidContent has an [...]

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Authors sue Harlequin over e-book royalties

Chris Meadows — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:15:09 +0000

The public may now be developing a love affair with e-books, but they may have lost their romance for some of Harlequin’s authors. Three such authors are suing Harlequin over a matter of miscalculated e-book royalties. Barbara Keiler, Mona Kay Thomas and Linda Barrett allege (PDF) that Harlequin used a tax-purposes subsidiary, Harlequin Swiss, to [...]

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John Wiley & Sons wins default judgment in peer-to-peer lawsuit

Chris Meadows — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:15:00 +0000

TorrentFreak has the latest word on the John Wiley & Sons peer-to-peer piracy lawsuit. A judge has entered a default judgment against one BitTorrent sharer of WordPress for Dummies in the amount of $7,000—$5,000 for for copyright violation, plus $2,000 for counterfeiting Wiley’s trademarks. (The sharer failed to respond to the lawsuit, hence the judgment [...]

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Apple will reinstate AAC app Speak For Yourself if its developers win in court

Chris Meadows — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 21:15:00 +0000

The Register reports that Apple will reinstate the AAC app “Speak For Yourself” if the speech therapists who made the app are able to win the patent lawsuit brought against them. Apple pulled the app several weeks ago as part of the ongoing dispute between two larger AAC device companies and the small start-up that [...]

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Augmentative communication app Speak For Yourself pulled from iTunes store at patent plaintiff request

Chris Meadows — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:26:43 +0000

A few months ago I wrote about the patent situation surrounding an app called “Speak For Yourself” that allows autistic and otherwise nonverbal people to communicate with others. A couple of companies who make much more expensive AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) devices are suing the makers of Speak For Yourself for infringing 100 of [...]

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RIP Jean C. George, 92

Chris Meadows — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:10:07 +0000

Galleycat reports that children’s author Jean C. George has passed away at the age of 92. George is best known for her books Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain, the latter of which was one of the mainstays of my childhood reading. I will forever regret never having the chance to [...]

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Judge denies Apple, publisher motions to dismiss class-action price-fixing suit

Chris Meadows — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:58:29 +0000

Hot on the heels of the filing I mentioned yesterday, the judge in the publisher/Apple price-fixing class action has issued a 56-page ruling (PDF). It’s important to note that this is only a preliminary ruling on Apple and the publishers’ motion to have the case thrown out. It doesn’t mean they’re necessarily guilty. As such, [...]

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Judge decides mostly in favor of Georgia State University in e-reserves case

Chris Meadows — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:13:25 +0000

A decision has come down in the Georgia State University e-reserves case, which we’ve covered here, here, and here. The case concerned electronic compilations of course material that professors bundle together from books in situations where they would not be using enough material from a particular book to make it worthwhile for students to buy [...]

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Penguin parent company reassures stockholders about DoJ case in financial statement

Chris Meadows — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:15:00 +0000

Pearson, the parent company of publisher Penguin, has released an interim management statement, as it is undoubtedly required to do every so often. Much of it isn’t of direct interest to e-book fans, but there is a paragraph on the book publishing industry and the DoJ lawsuit: Following several years of particularly strong performance relative [...]

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Why sue the publishers and Apple instead of Amazon? The DoJ may not have had much choice

Chris Meadows — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:57:02 +0000

In the publisher/Apple antitrust suit, one criticism that has emerged from the publisher partisan camp is that the DoJ is picking on them for trying to defend themselves against Amazon’s growing monopoly, while turning a blind eye to what Amazon is doing. However, the Wall Street Journal is running a piece in which it talks [...]

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Consumers still ‘upset and confused’ over e-book pricing

Chris Meadows — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:16:24 +0000

The perception and reality of e-book prices have been a matter of strong consumer opinions ever since Amazon first hit it big with its $9.99 bestseller titles and then publishers implemented agency pricing over the “devaluing” of e-books. Both sides seem to like to accuse each other of “entitlement”, and some folks can get quite [...]

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Wiley sues BitTorrent sharers, gives SCOTUS another shot at first sale precedent

Chris Meadows — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:48:22 +0000

TorrentFreak reports that For-Dummies publisher John Wiley & Sons has moved to file suit against several BitTorrent users who allegedly shared its books online. The majority of BitTorrent sharers to whom it sent nastygrams capitulated with $750 settlements, However, four users have not: New York residents Jeff Ng, Ralph Mohr, Robert Carpenter and Xiaoshu Chen [...]

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