A Toronto Star story by Curtis Rush indicates that publishers are defendants as well, for "conspiracy", The suit was filed in California and the plaintiffs are Rob Stutzman and Jonathan Wheeler.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Now, Lance Armstrong's books will test whether authors (and publishers) can be liable for "fraud"
Can authors be sued, in a class action, because a
non-fiction account they write isn’t true?
This isn’t about defamation or libel, where truth is an
absolute defense (in the US). It is
about the idea that the book-purchasing consumer has been defrauded or
deceived.
Carolyn Kellogg has a story in the Los Angeles Times about a class action suit against cyclist Lance
Armstrong for fraud in his 2000 book “It’s Not About the Bike”, published by
Putnam in 2000, as well as “Every Second Counts”, published by Broadway in
2003.
Amazon shows both books as available at bargain price from
Amazon’s Prime service.
A Toronto Star story by Curtis Rush indicates that publishers are defendants as well, for "conspiracy", The suit was filed in California and the plaintiffs are Rob Stutzman and Jonathan Wheeler.
A Toronto Star story by Curtis Rush indicates that publishers are defendants as well, for "conspiracy", The suit was filed in California and the plaintiffs are Rob Stutzman and Jonathan Wheeler.
Practically all publishers require authors to indemnify
them, so it sounds very unlikely the publishers could be on the hook (it’s
rather like a Section 230 for print).
There was a similar suit against Greg Mortensen for “Three
Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to
Promote Peace One School at a Time” in Montana, which was dismissed. That lawsuit had alleged that the publisher
(Penguin) was part of a “conspiracy”.
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