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Author's Rights Grant to Publisher Included e-Books
Today's book publishing agreements typically include a grant of e-book rights from an author to a publisher. But contracts from the pre-e-book era have been contested as to whether the older agreements give the author or the publisher the e-book rights in the author's works. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has decided that the phrase “now known or hereafter invented” granted the e-book rights to the publisher. HarperCollins Publishers LLC v. Open Road Integrated Media LLP, 11 Civ. 9499.
Author Jean George signed a contract with Harper & Row in 1971 under which her popular children's book Julie of the Wolves was published. George's literary agent Curtis Brown negotiated for the following clause to be included in the final agreement: “Publisher shall grant no license without the prior written consent of the Author with respect to the following rights in the work: use thereof in storage and retrieval and information systems, and/or whether through computer, computer-stored, mechanical or other electronic means now known or hereafter invented.” A “Reserved Rights” clause stated George retained “[a]ll rights in the Work now existing, or which may hereafter come into existence, not specifically herein granted.”
In 201l, after HarperCollins refused to match a 50% royalty split that Open Road offered George to publish Julie of the Wolves as an e-book, George signed with Open Road. HarperCollins filed a copyright infringement complaint, following publication of Open Road's e-edition.
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