Random House Denied Injunction Against RosettaBooks

Posted on July 12, 2001

U.S District Judge Sydney H. Stein has denied Random Houses' request for a preliminary injunction against electronic publisher RosettaBooks. Random House was seeking a preliminary injunction to stop RosettaBooks from publishing electronic versions of books previously published by Random House, Inc.

In his decision, Judge Stein stated, "Relying on the language of the contracts and basic principles of contract interpretation, this Court finds that the right to 'print, publish and sell the works(s) in book form' in the contracts at issue does not include the right to publish the works in the format that has come to be known as the 'ebook'."

The case is not over and Random House can appeal the decision or continue to a trial, but Judge Stein's decision is a victory for RosettaBooks and allows it to continue selling the electronic titles and to pursue contracts for the rights to publish additional electronic books. The decision could also encourage other publishers, agents and authors to negotiate contracts for back-listed titles that were published before publishers began to include electronic rights agreements in book contracts.

RosettaBooks has acquired the electronic-publishing rights to nearly 100 titles, including several works by William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Parker. On February 27, 2001, Random House, Inc. filed a suit against RosettaBooks. The suit alleges that Random House owns exclusive electronic rights to the titles by William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Parker and that Rosetta is infringing Random House's rights by publishing these titles electronically.

In response to the favorable decision, Arthur Klebanoff, Chief Executive Officer of RosettaBooks said, ``We are pleased by Judge Stein's decision to deny Random House's effort to enjoin us from publishing. This decision represents a victory for authors everywhere and we at RosettaBooks warmly express our thanks to the Authors Guild and the Association of Agents Representatives (AAR) for their support, which has been critical to our cause.''