Still Waiting for Outcome of Ebook Rights Suit

Posted on May 29, 2001

Random House and RosettaBooks are still waiting for a decision from New York federal District Court Judge Sidney Stein in a major electronic rights case. Book publisher Random House is seeking a preliminary injunction against RosettaBooks to stop RosettaBooks from publishing electronic versions of books previously published by Random House, Inc. The injunction would prevent RosettaBooks from publishing ebooks until the case was completed in court. Judge Stein has not yet set the date for another hearing, when he could announce his decision.

Both companies are claiming the electronic distribution rights to works by various authors including Kurt Vonnegut, William Styron and Robert Parker. RosettaBooks claims it owns the rights to publish electronic versions of the books because of contracts it signed with the authors last year and because it claims Random House did not purchase the electronic rights to these authors' books. Random House argues that its original contract with authors gives it the right to "print, publish, and sell in book form" the author's work. Random House claims the original contract covers electronic rights, which did not exist at the time the contract was signed.

The Author's Guild and the Association of Authors' Representatives have sided with RosettaBooks. Publishers Penguin Putnam, Perseus Books, Simon & Schuster and Time Warner Trade Publishing have joined with Random House. If the court issues an injunction, it will keep RosettaBooks from publishing the ebooks temporarily until both party's claims are resolved in court. The court's final decision on this matter will have a huge impact on epublishing and publishing. If the court sides with RosettaBooks then many authors (or their agents) may began shopping around the electronic rights of their books to different publishers or negotiating new contracts with their current publisher. However, if the court decides in favor of Random House this would be a major victory for the publishing houses as they would own both print and electronic rights for books published under the older contracts.