Styron’s Family Allowed to Control E-book Rights

Contracts between authors and publishers did not specifically mention e-books until about fifteen years ago.  As a result, legal battles have arisen over the right to publish electronic editions of older books.  

Publishers typically claim e-book rights, claiming that “in book form” clauses include the right to publish digital versions.  Despite this, Random House is releasing the rights to several of the deceased William Styron’s books without a fight.  Styron’s family will give these rights to Open Road Integrated Media, who has promised to revive Styron’s legacy and introduce new readers to his older books. Open Road has also agreed to split equally the profits from the e-books with Styron’s family, which is twice the amount that most publishers give authors for rights to e-books.

The question now is whether or not this has paved the way for “other authors to take their e-books away from traditional publishers.”  Motoko Rich, Random House Cedes Some Digital Rights to Styron Heirs, NY Times, April 25, 2010.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.