Kensington Publishing Corporation v. Dooce, Part Two
by Matt Craven
October 14, 2006
Drums n’ Whistles has the other documents from this case.
A quick read makes it appear that the deal was worth at least $150,000 excluding royalties… but I’m not a lawyer.
Matt Craven
Matt Craven is the former editor & publisher of The Blog Herald. Currently, Matt is the co-founder of Bryghtpath LLC, a consulting practice located in Woodbury, Minnesota. Matt's presently looking for new blogging gigs. Ping him at matt (at) bryghtpath dot com. You can follow him on Twitter.
Wow. I can’t believe it has it gone this far. It was an oral agreement and anyone that knows a little bit about copyright should know how almost impossible this is to enforce and that everything in publishing and I mean EVERYthing is written down so as not to cause confusion.
Me thinks that the publishers were pissed big time that she went somewhere else after losing confidence in them – and decided to drag her through the mud. Very spiteful seeing that it looks like they really hadn’t gone very far with her: ie: no royalty payments …
And yes, it seems to have been $150,000 in royalties – broken down over time.
Obviously there are 2 sides to this story, but for the publisher to drag this out says more about them than anything else.
Notice the effect this has had on the blogger – she hinted about suicide as a option during this period. And to include such a personal outline of the blogger’s history in the initial complaint just stinks for my liking. It smacks of plain spite.
I also understand that writers and editors work very closely at times – they often build into a very strong team – so when the editor who brought her in left she felt there was not much backing and support from the publishers – as seen by the lengthy delay in getting a contract delivered to her.
The documents are a useful insight into the workings of the publishing industry. Notice to bloggers and wannbe authors: research, be wary and seek advice.
I love the technical and legal jargon used by Kengsington in their lawsuit: “Kensington will suffer irreparable harm etc” Irreparable! They’ve been in business for 32 years and have 7% of a big market an this will harm them!!!
Yes, they have been harmed – because many will become wary of them if that’s the way they treat such issues.