Random House Inc. filed a lawsuit last week against Rosetta Books, charging the e-book publisher startup (E-publishing, Feb. 5) with copyright infringement by publishing e-book editions of several books to which Random claims it holds the e-book rights. A number of major publishers immediately backed Random's position, while author and agent groups threw their support behind Rosetta and its president, Arthur Klebanoff. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks to enjoin Rosetta from distributing the eight e-books in question, as well as unspecified monetary damages. A hearing to consider Random's request for a preliminary injunction is set for April 20, and until a further ruling is made, Rosetta will continue to sell its e-book titles.
The basic premise of Random's suit is that its contracts with authors gives it the exclusive right to publish the works in book form, which Random says includes e-book formats. Random House senior v-p and general counsel Harriette Dorsen contended that "e-books are just another way to deliver an author's words in a different format." The Random complaint states that its contracts "encompass formats that are the result of technical improvements enabling, for example, books to be read not merely in paper formats, but as well in one or more electronic, or eBook, formats." Dorsen told PW that Random thought "long and hard" about filing suit, but felt it had no choice when Rosetta began publishing e-book editions of authors who are "critically important" to the company. Rosetta "struck at a core principle. E-books will be competitive with print books one day, and Rosetta is selling books they have no right to sell," Dorsen said.
The eight books that are the subject of the suit are two William Styron books, Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice; five Kurt Vonnegut works including Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle; and Robert Parker's Promised Land. According to Random's complaint, it plans to publish the titles of the three men as e-books "in the near future."
Rosetta founder Klebanoff said he has signed contracts with the authors' agents for the e-book rights, and Random is suing because "they are upset they didn't sign the rights themselves." He told PW the lawsuit is "not about our eight titles, but about the e-book rights to all publishers' backlist titles." Klebanoff, who has hired high-powered attorney David Boies to defend Rosetta, said he was "delighted to carry the banner for the agent community" in what is likely to be a test case about who controls e-book rights. He charged Random with "putting forth an antiauthor position... we are proauthor."
Both the National Writers Union and the Authors Guild said they will support Rosetta's position in any way they can. NWU president Jonathan Tasini called the suit "a brazen grab to control rights that Random doesn't own." The guild's executive director, Paul Aiken, observed that "contracts are specific in what rights are granted. You can't suddenly expand the definition because new ways to deliver texts are developed."
Don Maass, president of the Donald Maass Literary Agency and head of the Association of Authors' Representatives, released a statement on behalf of the AAR that read: "This unjustified assertion of power on the part of the world's largest publishing conglomerate is distressing. It is deeply troubling that Random House is trying to redefine 'book' decades after signing a contract. If the court allows it, it will be a sad day for authors." Maass said the AAR board of directors will take up the issue at its meeting this week.
Robert Gottlieb, president of Trident Media Group, described the question of who owns e-book rights as a "gray area," adding that "technically, in older contracts if a publisher has the rights to a book, that only covers print rights."
Hearing the news of the suit at a publishing seminar held last week, both Time Warner Trade Publishing chairman Larry Kirshbaum and HarperCollins president of corporate strategy and international David Steinberger said they supported Random's position.
Dorsen and Klebanoff did agree on one point—that the outcome of the case will go a long way toward settling the issue of who controls e-book rights. "It's important for authors and publishers to have a decision so the business can be developed," Dorsen noted.
RH's E-Book Investments
Random's legal brief provides a bit of information about its plans for the e-book market. According to the filing, Random has invested more than $5 million to develop its e-book publishing program and plans to invest about $10 million over the next three to five years, "based on its belief that e-books will someday become a format of choice for a significant segment of the book consuming public." Random currently has 300 titles in e-book format; within the next 12 months it expects to offer an additional 1,000 frontlist titles as e-books plus an additional 1,000 backlist titles within 18 months.
Some other numbers that were included in the suit: Random's backlist stands at over 20,000 titles, and backlist accounts for 40% of Random's annual revenues; it has more than 330 editors; during fiscal 2000 it spent more than $100 million promoting its publications.
