E-Book Saga Is Full of Woe--and a Bit of Intrigue
- From: J Flenner <varney@[redacted]>
- Subject: E-Book Saga Is Full of Woe--and a Bit of Intrigue
- Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 13:21:37 -0400
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-080601ebooks.story
August 6, 2001
E-Book Saga Is Full of Woe--and a Bit of Intrigue
By DAVID STREITFELD, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Richard DeGrandpre wrote "Digitopia" as a warning about the false
promises of the wired world. Then it was published as an
electronic book, and all his predictions came true.
"Digitopia," issued by Random House in March, was never reviewed
or promoted or, it seems, downloaded. "My book is just dead,"
said DeGrandpre, a psychologist.
So are just about everyone else's e-books.
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Random Worries About Rights to Classics
That's why Random House is continuing its fight against
RosettaBooks, a small New York electronic publisher. Rosetta
acquired from three Random authors the rights to digitally
distribute their novels. Random is afraid that it will have to
renegotiate the electronic rights to its entire backlist of
thousands of classics. These are books it signed up long before
any publisher knew to ask writers for digital rights.
A New York judge denied Random's request for a preliminary
injunction that would stop Rosetta from selling the novels by
Robert Parker, William Styron and Kurt Vonnegut. Random is now
appealing.
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