The publisher Random House sought an injunction against Rosetta Books claiming that Random House had exclusive reproduction and publication rights in written works that it had previously published.
The court ruled that Random House’s rights did not extend to publications of the written material in electronic or digital formats. Instead, those rights remained with the authors of the works and so only their permission was required for electronic publications.
The contracts between Random House and the authors of the works in question were drawn up prior to the growth of electronic publishing technology and so made no express provision for E-books. The court considered the distinguishing features of E-books and concluded that there were significant differences between them and traditional print media and so they could not be covered by the existing contracts.