Rights Management & Royalties

The American Booksellers Association, Authors Guild, Association of American Publishers, and more have launched the Protect the Creative Economy Coalition following the introduction of a host of new library e-book bills in several states this year.

The filings sketch the battle lines for a landmark legal battle over the digitization and lending of books.

A federal judge asked the AAP and state attorneys to submit draft language for a declaratory judgment to end teh case but is unclear whether a permanent injunction is also still under consideration.

After declining to appeal a preliminary injunction issued last month, Maryland attorneys now have until April 11 to show why a permanent injunction should not be issued.

Penguin Random House denies claims by the Internet Archive that it demanded the removal of Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir 'Maus' from IA digital circulation due to soaring sales in the wake of recent efforts to censor the book.

In a January 14 filing, the Maryland Attorney General asked a federal judge to dismiss the AAP's claim that the state's recently enacted library e-book law law is preempted by the federal Copyright Act.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has vetoed New York's library e-book bill. "While the goal of this bill is laudable, unfortunately, copyright protection provides the author of the work with the exclusive right to their works. Because the provisions of this bill are preempted by federal copyright law, I cannot support this bill," Hochul wrote…

At a December 2 pre-motion conference, a federal magistrate judge agreed to extend the discovery deadline in the lawsuit filed by four major publishers against the Internet Archive over the Internet Archive's scanning and lending of print library books.

The suit accuses the e-commerce service of contributory and vicarious copyright and trademark infringement for allegedly facilitating the sale of pirated textbooks and educational materials.

IA lawyers called the publishers’ recent filing ‘unfortunate’ and said they are complying with or have already complied with all of the publishers’ discovery requests.