In yet another case involving copyright law in the digital age, Judge Sidney H. Stein declined to issue a preliminary injunction against RosettaBooks, an upstart e-book publishing group, that has been publishing electronic versions of books originally printed by Random House.

In his opinion, Judge Stein stated, "Random House is not likely to succeed on the merits of its copyright infringement claim." He also indicated that electronic books are indeed published in a different medium than books in the traditional format.

Random House initially sued RosettaBooks in federal court for copyright infringement because the company was publishing popular titles by Random House authors. The giant publishing house argued they held the copyrights to the books in electronic formats as well as bound versions.

In turn, RosettaBooks argued that Random House did not hold the electronic copyright to the books in question because they were published before 1994 and, at that time, the publishing house was not including language in their contracts that specifically included digital versions of the books.

The full case will now be heard by Judge Stein, although Random House has the opportunity to appeal his ruling on the preliminary injunction.

Related Freedom Line links:

The E-book Copyright Dispute: Can You Judge A Book By Its Cover?