Do publishers who hold copyrights to older book titles also own the right to publish those titles in digital form, as e-books?

Before the advent of the Internet, publisher contracts with authors typically included clauses guaranteeing the right to publish the work “in book form”. This begs the question; what exactly is a ‘book”?

A recent article in the New York Times has considered this very question. Not surprisingly, publishers such as Random House, who hold copyrights in many older book titles, have argued that the term “book form” should encompass any digital format. Other publishers, such as Open Road, who concentrate entirely on e-book formats, argue that such contracts are confined to books in traditional print format.

This issue first achieved prominence in the 2001 decision of Random House, Inc. v. Rosetta Books, LLC et al., when Random House sought an injunction preventing Rosetta Books from publishing in e-book format, arguing that its copyright to publish in “book form” was an exclusive license that permitted publication in any and all formats. District Judge Stein disagreed, however, and held that, “the publishing industry generally interprets the phrase ‘in book form’ as granting the publisher “the exclusive right to publish a hardcover trade book …”. Ironically, Judge Stein decided against Random House based on its own Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary definition of ‘book’, in which a book is defined as: “a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.”

Eight years later, the definition of a “book” has still not changed. Despite major developments in the e-book world, the accepted definition of “book” still does not encompass the “e-book”, a finding supported by a brief survey of online dictionaries. The Merriam Webster is typical, in that it defines a book to include a set of written sheets of skin or paper or tablets of wood or ivory, or, a set of written, printed, or blank sheets bound together into a volume. The Free Dictionary, YourDictionary and Dictionary.com, all provide definitions in similar terms.

Eight years of “e-development” since 2001 and, despite the addition of numerous new Internet-related words to the dictionary, a book is still regarded very much as a paper (or ivory or wood) based medium. New publishing contracts take care, of course, to encompass publication in any and all possible formats. But the old stuff? Fair game.