A “Notice of Public Disposition” posted today reveals that Amazon intends to buy Dorchester at public auction; a higher bidder could outbid Amazon, should other parties be interested.
Agents and authors owed monies by Dorchester will be offered an amendment to their contracts, offering the transfer of rights to Amazon in exchange for all back royalties owed by Dorchester for the work(s) as of May 31, 2012. The winning bidder ...Read More
Read moreIn answer to the Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against Apple and five of the “Big Six” publishers, Penguin and Macmillan each filed formal responses. (HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster have negotiated settlements, and Apple filed its own response previously.)
While both Penguin and Macmillan’s responses make reference to Amazon’s near-monopoly in the e-book business, Penguin’s filing is getting the most attention.
Penguin robustly defends the agency model, claiming ...Read More
Read moreOn April 11, 2012, the US Department of Justice made good on their threat to file an antitrust lawsuit against technology giant Apple and five of the Big Six publishers: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster. Hours after the suit was filed, three of the publishers — Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and HarperCollins — agreed to settle with the DoJ, allowing Amazon and other retailers to discount their ...Read More
Read moreThe Department of Justice, which has been investigating several major publishers and Apple for possible antitrust violations related to e-book pricing, has indicated they intend to bring a lawsuit accusing Apple and the so-called Agency Five (Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin) of colluding to fix prices on e-books.
Those publishers and Apple moved away from a wholesale model — where books are sold to the retailer, with ...Read More
Read moreDorchester Publishing’s owner, The Backe Group Inc., founded by John Backe, filed a notice of foreclosure against Dorchester, after failing to collect on an outstanding $3.4 million loan. The notice signaled Backe’s intention to “foreclose its security interest in [Dorchester] and sell at public auction as a single unit,” including the company’s registered trademarks, related internet domain names, works of authorship, copyrights, copyright registrations, and even computer equipment. Because the ...Read More
Read moreThe Science Fiction Writers of America announced to members yesterday that Dorchester Publishing, after failing to fulfill their contractual obligations to SFWA members, has been removed from the list of qualifying SFWA markets. Dorchester was put on probation on December 10, 2010 for not paying royalties when contractually specified and for distributing books in formats they had not legally secured rights to. Although some effort has been made, because Dorchester ...Read More
Read moreThe Philip K. Dick estate has filed suit against Media Rights Capital, which bought the rights to Dick’s “Adjustment Team” in 2009. The estate claims MRC owes them half a million dollars and a percentage of profits from the 2011 film The Adjustment Bureau.
MRC now claims the story’s copyright has lapsed, citing a 1954 publication and subsequent failure to renew the copyright. If the story is public domain, ...Read More
Read moreThe estate of Philip K. Dick sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google on January 6, 2010, a day after Google launched its new Android OS-based phone, the “Nexus One”. The family claims that the name Nexus One is a “clear infringement of our intellectual property rights,” referencing the Nexus 6 replicants in Bladerunner, the movie based on PKD’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The letter, a possible presage ...Read More
Read moreThe Tennessee Supreme Court recently denied Victor Horadam’s request for a final appeal, which means the battle over the rights to Andre Norton’s past and future works is over for good.
The appellate court’s decision from late 2008 will stand, which means Norton’s longtime caregiver Sue Stewart will control the copyright to books published during Norton’s life, including royalties on any reprints, while Horadim will receive royalties on any works ...Read More
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