Random: UK legal context on digital rights 'different'

15.12.09 Benedicte Page reporting in The Bookseller

The Random House Group has said it believes the industry should keep "physical and digital as one", despite acknowledging that "both the legal and publishing context is different in the UK to the USA".

The company's statement was issued in response to reports that Markus Dohle, chief executive of Random House US, had written to agents in the US asserting digital rights to books it published before the emergence of an electronic book marketplace.

A spokesperson for the UK company said: "We have invested millions of pounds in the UK to
develop, exploit - and protect - our authors' digital future.

"Although both the legal and publishing context is different in the UK to the USA, we start from the premise that we are here as publishers to edit, market and sell our authors' work in every readable format and believe that our authors, the agent community and the long-term future of our industry is best served by keeping physical and digital books as one."

No further clarification of RHG's position was available.