Publishers sue Shopify for harboring book pirates

In December of last year, five major textbook publishers filed a lawsuit against Shopify in federal district court in the Eastern District of Virginia claiming that Shopify wrongfully facilitated infringement of their copyrighted textbooks and registered trademarks by maintaining an ecommerce platform it knew to be hosting repeat textbook pirates and frustrating the publishers’ attempts to get them taken down.

The publishers are Macmillan Learning, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, McGraw-Hill, and Pearson Education. Their complaint lists more than 3,400 copyrighted works and 20 registered trademarks that have been infringed and asks for an injunction barring Shopify from further facilitating the claimed infringements, statutory damages of more than half a billion dollars, and reimbursement of plaintiffs’ attorney fees.

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Pearson files copyright infringement lawsuit against Chegg, Inc.

On September 13, in what will have a potentially serious impact on the academic publishing industry, specifically as it relates to online supplemental materials and study guides, Pearson Education filed a lawsuit against Chegg, Inc. for copyright infringement [Pearson sues former partner Chegg for copyright infringement (insidehighered.com)]. This suit [complaint.pdf (oandzlaw.com)] stems from the use of end of chapter and other materials from Pearson Education (one of the big three textbook publishers) textbooks as part of the Chegg Study website.

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Ethics International Press seeking proposals

Ethics International Press is seeking proposals for English-language academic books and edited collections in several writing fields including philosophy, religion, law, business, environment, and politics.

Proposals should primarily be for scholarly books, including text/reference books, but they are also accepting adapted Doctoral theses and collections selected from conferences. View the book proposal form.

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Pearson Education launches new mobile app, Pearson+

On July 30, Pearson Education announced the launch of a new college learning app, Pearson+, as a way for students to access the company’s 1,500 eBooks and study tools, such as flashcards, advanced note taking, and practice questions.

Pearson+, which will be available via desktop and mobile app, offers two monthly pay-as-you-go options:

Single Tier: $9.99 per month for one Pearson eText
Multi Tier: $14.99 per month for access to 1500+ Pearson eTexts

According to the company’s press release, “While 70% of Pearson’s higher education revenue already comes from digital products, Pearson+ will help recapture additional sales lost to the secondary textbook market and reset the economics of the company’s higher education business.”

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SOTA celebrates 20 years of legacy, scholarship and sisterhood

TAA congratulates Sisters of the Academy Institute (SOTA) on its 20th Anniversary!

Founded in 2001, SOTA’s mission is to facilitate the success of Black women in the Academy. Specifically, the organization aims to create an educational network of Black women in higher education in order to foster success in the areas of teaching, scholarly inquiry, and service to the community; facilitate collaborative scholarship among Black women in higher education; and facilitate the development of relationships to enhance members’ professional development.

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