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Originally Posted by ATDrake
But it appears that HC may not actually have the rights to release an actual e-book, only to block someone else's release of one...
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HC can't publish it digitally without the author's permission. However, if their interpretation of the contract is correct, they still have exclusive rights. As in, Open Road doesn't have the rights to publish the ebook, and the author can't reassign those rights without getting HC to release them.
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Originally Posted by ATDrake
it is a 1971 agreement, back when computers were like, huge IBM mainframes or whatever if they weren't still vacuum tube punchcard things.
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That's irrelevant. If the contract says anything even remotely broad enough to indicate future mediums that did not exist in 1971, then HC has the rights.
Now it is possible that the contract did not in fact assign those rights, but again without having access to more of the contract, it's still just speculation.
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Originally Posted by ATDrake
more pointedly on the shortcomings of HC, who are handling this in a rather high-handed manner which seems to be a band-wagon jump as it looks like they're now claiming they were planning an e-book release all along...
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Oh, please. How is Open Road publishing a version without clearing or securing the rights first any less "high-handed?"
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Originally Posted by ATDrake
This is probably all going to end up on Writer Beware as a cautionary example of predatory publisher practices when drawing up and interpreting decades-old contracts.
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Yes, writers should beware... that contracts might obligate them to actually do what they agreed in the contract.
