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Is anyone still paying attention to the DOJ/ebook antitrust case?

Brian Howard — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:47:07 +0000

I guess I’d forgotten. Now that all the the publishing players have settled, abandoning agency pricing and returning to the wholesale slums, the DOJ/e-book antitrust case, which popped up again in everyone’s news feeds this week, feels a little anticlimactic. The DOJ, perhaps simply because it’s what it found, or perhaps because there’s no one [...]

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Macmillan Finalizes E-Book Settlement

Juli Monroe — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:15:40 +0000

We’re finally nearing the end of this saga. Yesterday, Publishers Weekly reported that Macmillan has finalized their e-book settlement with the state and consumer classes. The agreement has been sent to Judge Cote, who is expected to approve it. The final total for Macmillan was $26 million, $20 million of which is earmarked for consumer compensation. [...]

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What the ReDigi case might mean for Amazon’s used content plans

Joanna Cabot — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:37:05 +0000

Numerous websites have been reporting on the latest twist in the ReDigi case (for example, here on Paid Content). The case sets an important potential precedent for other business plans involving the sale of digital content. I know Amazon has contemplated a move into this area, and I wonder if they might be the ones with [...]

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Arizona bill looks to add e-book readers to library privacy law

Susan Lulgjuraj — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:15:11 +0000

As e-books emerge as more and more of a popular medium, politicians have to look at new ways of protecting citizens. When many laws were enacted, even decades ago, they were written without much consideration for future digital endeavors. Arizona is the most recent to state to look at e-books, and to move to protect [...]

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What does the SCOTUS’ Wiley v. Kirtsaeng decision mean for books, publishing?

Brian Howard — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:55:47 +0000

By now you’ve likely heard that the Supreme Court has ruled, in a 6-3 decision, in favor of immigrant scientist Supap Kirtsaeng in Kirtsaeng V. Wiley. In what’s being heralded as a win for consumers and libraries, and a loss for publishers, the SCOTUS overturned a previous ruling against Kirtsaeng, who had been buying textbooks printed (legally) abroad—where [...]

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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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DOJ Approves Penguin Random House Merger

Juli Monroe — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:37:01 +0000

One hurdle down. Several more to go with the EU, Canadian Competition Bureau and various other antitrust authorities around the world still needing to weigh in on this. Penguin’s settlement with the Justice Department was a move to smooth the way for this merger, and it looks like that move worked. Note that Random House, [...]

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BREAKING: Macmillan Settles with DOJ on Price Fixing

Juli Monroe — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:30:07 +0000

Apple is now the lone hold-out. As you may recall, three publishers—Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster—immediately settled, leaving Penguin, MacMillan and Apple to fight it out in court. Penguin settled in December, probably to protect their pending merger with Random House. And now Macmillan joins its fellows. Macmillan CEO John Sargent cited financial reasons [...]

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Supreme Court First Sale Doctrine case could give boost to resale-proof digital media sales

Chris Meadows — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:00:49 +0000

Ars Technica has a couple of great, in-depth pieces laying out in detail the facts of the matter surrounding the upcoming Supreme Court case concerning a Thai exchange student who imported and resold cheap foreign editions of English-language textbooks to finance his doctorate. Publishers contend he earned $1.2 million in revenues, and essentially set himself up as an unlicensed [...]

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Steve Jobs biographer does not have to turn over unpublished material to agency pricing class-action plaintiffs

Chris Meadows — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:25:23 +0000

If you’re interested in any new tidbit of information about the legal matters surrounding the publishers’ and Apple’s implementation of agency pricing, here’s an interesting one for you. Publishers Weekly reports that Denise Cote, the judge in the class-action suit against Apple and the publishers, has ruled that Walter Isaacson, the the author of the [...]

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Canadian fair dealing ruling may expand scope of fair use in Canada

Chris Meadows — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:25:40 +0000

Personanondata has a look at a recent legal decision in Canada’s Supreme Court concerning “fair dealing” (what we call “fair use”) as it applied to music and educational material—similar to the recent Georgia University ruling in the US. One particular point the judge made is that it’s unrealistic to expect universities to purchase entire copies [...]

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Google files motion for summary judgment, insists Google Books is fair use, has not harmed any book sales

Chris Meadows — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:05:24 +0000

PaidContent has a copy of Google’s motion for summary judgment, and a summary of what it says. Google makes the case that its scanning of all those copyrighted books qualifies as fair use, and cites numerous examples of beneficial outcomes that have come out of the availability of that information to be searched. It also [...]

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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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European Commission investigates France, Luxembourg for illegally lowering VAT on e-books

Chris Meadows — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:15:00 +0000

Remember how Amazon has based its European operations in Luxembourg due to that country’s lower value-added tax rate on e-books? And France has reduced its own rate? Today the European Commission served notice that it was launching an investigation into whether these countries had broken European Union law by reducing those rates. The first step [...]

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Nine major independent publishers object to DoJ price-fixing settlement

Chris Meadows — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 01:00:00 +0000

The Atlantic reports on a new 20-page legal brief objecting to the terms of the Department of Justice settlement, filed by nine major independent publishers: Abrams Books, Chronicle Books, Grove/Atlantic Inc. Chicago Review Press, Inc, New Directions Publishing Corp., W.W. Norton & Company, Perseus Books Group, the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, and Workman Publishing. [...]

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