Legal Archives | The Digital Reader

Guest Post: Amazon, Google and Facebook Warrant Antitrust Scrutiny for Many Reasons – Not Just Because They’re Large

24 June, 201924 June, 2019AntitrustLeave a comment

There’s a growing chorus of U.S. politicians, antitrust scholars and consumer watchdogs calling for stricter antitrust treatment of Amazon, Google, Facebook and other tech giants. Some even say they should be broken...

POD Giveth, and POD Taketh Away (Piracy)

24 June, 201924 June, 2019Amazon, Piracy, POD4 Comments

About four years back I uncovered a massive textbook piracy operation running unchecked in Createspace. Enterprising scammers were stealing dozens of digital textbooks, then pirating them...

PRH Buys Half of F+W Media At Auction, Including Half of Writer’s Digest

8 June, 20198 June, 2019Bankruptcy, Publishing5 Comments

Do you know that story in the Bible where Solomon orders a baby cut in half in order to settle a dispute about who was the...

The Biggest Plagiarism Scandal in the History of eBooks Slipped by Amazon Unnoticed

1 May, 20191 May, 2019Amazon, Fraud, Intellectual Property, Piracy, Uncategorized9 Comments

When news broke a little over two months ago that the Brazilian author person Cristiane Serruya had copied parts of Courtney Milan's book, The Duchess War,...

IRS, FBI Raid Baltimore Mayor in the Wake of a “Books for Contracts” Corruption Scandal

25 April, 201925 April, 2019Fraud, LawsuitOne Comment

When I reported on Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh taking a leave of absence a few weeks ago following revelations that companies and charities had bought her...

The Problem with eBook Piracy Spam

17 April, 201917 April, 2019DMCA, Piracy15 Comments

Try this experiment. Go to Amazon and pull up any book, any book at all as long as it has been out for at least a few...

At the Request of Their Union, Screenwriters are Firing Their Agents

14 April, 201914 April, 2019Contract6 Comments

An ongoing contract dispute is sending shockwaves through Hollywood, and it's going to have an interesting effect on what stories get told on your favorite show....

Audible Settles Several More Class Action Lawsuits

7 April, 20197 April, 2019Amazon, Audiobook, LawsuitLeave a comment

A little over two years ago Audible was hit with several class action lawsuits that alleged that the Amazon subsidiary had engaged in bait-and-switch tactics and...

Mayor of Baltimore Resigns in Aftermath of Books for Contracts Scandal

4 April, 20195 April, 2019Contract, Corruption, LegislationOne Comment

Authors are always looking for new ways to boost their sales. Here's one that is best left on the shelf. The Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore...

Pirate Site Owner Launches GoFundMe Campaign to Raise Funds to Defend a Piracy Suit

28 March, 20194 April, 2019Piracy9 Comments

I have disliked Travis McCrea ever since he claimed his earlier ebook site, The Ultimate eBook Library, was protected by the DMCA, but now he is...

Anti-Piracy Service Blasty is Back Online After a Week’s Downtime

22 March, 201924 March, 2019Intellectual Property, Piracy5 Comments

Since 2015 Blasty has been offering an anti-piracy service where they automatically scanned the web for pirated copies of an author's work and gave authors the...

NZ Bookstore Chain Whitcoulls Bans Jordan Peterson’s Books Following Mosque Attacks

21 March, 201921 March, 2019Censorship3 Comments

Whitcoulls in New Zealand has stopped carrying books by Jordan Peterson. According to a customer service email posted to Reddit and shared via Twitter, the retailer...

US Supreme Court Rules Copyright Holders Must Complete Registration Before Filing Suit

7 March, 20197 March, 2019Intellectual Property2 Comments

It has long been established that you had to register a copyright before you could file an infringement lawsuit, but some courts had accepted merely filing...

Could The Movie “Yesterday” be Based on the Book “Enormity”? (Maybe, but Probably Not)

20 February, 201911 July, 2019Intellectual Property15 Comments

The publishing industry's current controversy of the week for this week revolves around an upcoming movie, and an author who is claiming implies that the movie's plot...

Amazon is Still Selling Pirated POD Textbooks

14 February, 201914 February, 2019Amazon, Piracy, POD4 Comments

Over the past three years I have reported no fewer than four times about Amazon's ongoing problem with counterfeit and pirated books in its POD service,...

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