We previously reported on Random House’s somewhat tortuous stance that it still owns the contractual e-book rights even for books whose contracts pre-dated the idea of the e-book—even though a court did not see it that way in 2001. Now Motoko Rich at the New York Times writes that Random House is not pressing a claim against the digital rights for the works of the late William Styron, author of works including Sophie’s Choice and Darkness Visible. A Random House spokesman insists that the company is continuing talks with authors and the Styron case is an exception...

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As the iPad’s United Kingdom launch nears, The Bookseller reports that Amazon is speaking to literary agents in the UK about selling e-book rights directly to Amazon. A number of American e-book publishers are approaching UK agents as well, including Rosetta Books (who e-publishes exclusively through Amazon). At the moment, there seems to be some turmoil in the UK publishing industry as authors and publishers are still arguing over royalty rates. Publishers have "missed a trick" by making authors anxious, [a leading London agent] said. "The whole debate over Google has intensified the...

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