Book People Archive

Rosetta Books Legal Case

They don't seem to think movie rights are book rights,
even when the movies start with the opening of the book
and show every word of the first page, or three, if they
actually show the completion of the turning of page one.

Since publishing even just page one on paper or Etext
would be immediately countered with a lawsuit, we must
conclude that publication of a medium in which the book
"can be read" is not always wrapped up in the "book" contract.

I would also include publication of the same words in "comic
book" form, which also seems not to violate the "book" contract
but definitely contains "words that can be read."


Michael





The Wall Street Journal
Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.


Monday, May 7, 2001

[Moderator:  This is not the full article; with Michael's consent, I've
 cut everything past the opening paragraphs, and added a shorter
 summary of some of the facts in the article, to stay within fair use
 bounds.  The full article is in Monday's (print) WSJ, or on the
 wsj.com website (which requires a paid subscription for access).

 This case was also discussed on this list in mid-April (see the
 archives for past posts on the subject, including one from
 the COO of Rosetta Books.) - JMO] 

Definitions Are Key in Publishers' Dispute Over Electronic-Book Rights
---
Random House Suit Challenges Authors' Ability to Negotiate Outside E-Reprint
Contracts
By Matthew Rose
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK -- What is a book?

Arthur Klebanoff, co-founder and chief executive of electronic publisher
Rosetta Books LLC, gestures to the shelves lining a wall of his cramped
Third Avenue digs. "Those are books," he says, pointing to titles by Bill
Bradley and Ian Fleming. "A paper, printed book is a book."

Wait a minute, says Harriette K. Dorsen, Random House Inc.'s general counsel
from her 22nd-floor office with its panoramic view of midtown. "This is one
format of a book," she says, pointing to a hardcover volume of Persian
poetry. But, more broadly, she says, a book is "the author's words conveyed
to the imagination of the reader."

The debate isn't merely academic. The definition of "book" is a central
element of a suit filed in February by Random House, the world's largest
English-language publisher, against Rosetta Books, a one-year-old start-up.
Rosetta is offering for sale eight electronic versions of previously
published works by three Random House authors, Kurt Vonnegut, William Styron
and Robert B. Parker. Random House says that's in violation of existing
contracts, including noncompete clauses.

The case, the first to directly tackle the question of who owns electronic
rights in book publishing, is being treated as a test case for the industry
and will likely set precedent. Tomorrow, the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York will hear Random House's request for a
preliminary injunction against Rosetta Books. A full trial is expected
this summer.

The authors' original contracts, drawn up before the widespread use of
personal computers, give Random House the right to publish the works
"in book form" without specifying anything about electronic rights.

[Much of the rest of the article explains the two sides' arguments about
 whether "in book form" covers electronic book rights, which weren't
 explicitly mentioned in Random House's contracts until 1994.

 Random House, along with some other publishing interests, claims it does,
 since it's the exact same text the author wrote, just encoded on a
 different medium.   It draws an analogy to films being rereleased in
 videocassette and DVD form.  (Rights for video releases of movies have
 been the subject of earlier litigation.)  Also, they argue, books in
 electronic form were foreseeable well before they existed, due to articles
 like Vannevar Bush's _As We May Think_ published in the 1940s; hence, the
 burden was on the authors to exclude electronic book rights in contracts.

 Rosetta, along with the Author's Guild and some literary agents,
 claims otherwise, noting that rights to alternative formats of the text,
 such as paperbacks and audio books, are typically mentioned separately.
 Also, they argue, the interface and added features of electronic books 
 make for a different reading experience; hence, the burden was on
 the publishers to include electronic book rights in contracts.
 
 Right now, Random House's "ebook" sales are small: "tens of thousands"
 of sales on 300 titles-- you can do the math on average per-title sales--
 but they say they intend to eventually offer electronic versions of
 more of their 20,000-title backlist, which in total represents 40% of
 their revenue.  So the potential stakes are high.

 Many of the court documents, which contain arguments from both sides,
 can be found on the Web.  I haven't been able to find anything on the case
 at the plaintiff's web site, but the defendants have a page at
 
     http://www.rosettabooks.com/pages/legal.html

 which includes copies of filings on both sides.  The case is also
 being reported on at several Internet news sites.

 - JMO]