Reading through Schreiber’s papers, Nathan says it becomes obvious that the writer knew that Mason’s story was not entirely true. Memories of a traumatic tonsillectomy, for instance, morphed into a lurid story of abuse. And Schreiber seemed eager to pump up or even create drama where none existed. But if Schreiber had doubts, she suppressed them.

“She already had a contract and she already had a deadline,” Nathan says. “She was in the middle of writing the book. So she had the dilemma all journalists have nightmares about — what if my thesis turns out to be wrong as I do my research but it’s too late?”

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Mashable has a very good article on what to do if your ereader is lost or stolen.  It gives the telephone numbers of the customer service for Kindle, nook, and Sony.  Until you call and report your ereader is stolen, you can be responsible for those charges.  You can also deauthorize your devices. On Kindle, you can deauthorize the device from the Manage Your Kindle page and from Sony, you can turn off the “buy now” feature.

Only with the nook can sideloaded content be protected, although I am not certain how that occurs.

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Lynn D gave me the heads up about this Supreme Court of Canada ruling on linking to libelous material.

N owns and operates a website in British Columbia containing commentary about various issues, including free speech and the Internet.  One of the articles he posted on it contained shallow and deep hyperlinks to other websites, which in turn contained information about C.  C sued N on the basis that two of the hyperlinks he created connected to defamatory material, and that by using those hyperlinks, N was publishing the defamatory information.

The Court found that hyperlinking is not republication of libelous material:

  As previously noted, when a hyperlinker creates a link, he or she gains no control over the content linked to.  If a plaintiff wishes to prevent further publications of the defamatory content, his or her most effective remedy lies with the person who actually created and controls the content.  Making reference to the existence and/or location of content by hyperlink or otherwise, without more, is not publication of that content.

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Amazon is sued by an actress for publication of her age on Internet Movie Database.  She claims that the only way they could have discovered her age is by scouring public records using information from her credit card.  Source: INFOdocket.

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Simon & Schuster and two others (Hachette and Random House) are going to be providing actual sales data to their authors.  S&S calls it their Author Portal and will provide authors the last six weeks of book sales, divided by format and by type of retailer.

The sales information that authors can see includes the last six weeks of book sales from a variety of sources, divided by format. There are separate screens for e-book sales, hardcover sales, paperbacks and audiobooks. Those figures come from a number of different kinds of booksellers.

The data come from different sales channels, including mass market stores, national acocunts and warehouse clubs. These data are aggregated: Authors won’t be able to see how many of their books sold at, say, Target versus Barnes & Noble, but they will be able to review those numbers overall.

Electricbook said on Twitter:

Thanking publishers for sharing live sales data with authors is like thanking the football stadium for showing the score.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Pubs Use POD for Backlist Titles
2. Thursday Midday Links: Mass market paperback sales decline 41.5% in February
3. Thursday Midday Links: Authors & Morals

Barbara Bauer is on SFWA’s twenty worst agents list.    NielsonHayden also noted that Barbara Bauer is a “well known scam agent” and so did Miss Snark.   As everyone and their cousin on these sites note, calling someone a scam agent is defensible if it is the truth.   (I don’t think it’s entirely accurate to say that it is not libel if it is the truth. Truth is just an absolute defense to libel).

On the P&E website, it claims that Victor E Cretella infringed on a contract.   I am not sure how you can infringe on a contract.   You can breach a contract.   You can tortiously interfere with a contract but infringe?   In any event, this is a bit more interesting.   Apparently some had made complaints to the Maryland Bar Association regarding Cretella’s activities as PublishAmerica’s attorney.   Any complaint made to an ethics board is investigated in my state.   Is Cretella an unethical lawyer?   Essentially, that is what P&E is going to have to prove.

7/14/07: PublishAmerica’s lawyer Victor Cretella infringing contract? This is what we’ve had reported to P&E. According to our source, Vic has infringed upon or is breaching the terms of a contract in regards to the Arbitration clause.

So, is this how PA operates? They don’t honor their contracts or show any good faith even when it comes to negotiations and arbitration?

By the way, anyone who has had dealings with an attorney in Maryland who knows they are in violation of the law or their ethics code can file a complaint against the attorney using the information at http://www.courts.state.md.us/attygrievance/complaint.html. This site lists some of the sanctions applied to various attorneys. According to our sources, sounds like it’s time to report Vic for his behavior.

Thanks to Dooley for the tip.

Related posts:

1. Regnery Suit Dismissed
2. Random House to Settle James Frey Class Action Suit
3. Litigious J.K. Rowling Files Suit to Keep Previously Approved Fan Site from Publishing Book