Brought to book: when publishers go to court

A writer has just won a legal battle with Marvel and DC, but how do publishers usually fare in the courts?

 

Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in The Aviator. His ‘autobiography’ was revealed to be a hoax. Photograph: Photographer: Andrew Cooper/www.ronaldgrantarchive.com John Dugdale - Saturday 28 May 2016 - Guardian                                                                                                                               A writer scored a significant victory over publishers this week, when comic book giants Marvel and DC – who had tried to block Graham Jules from using “superhero” in the title of his self-help manual Business Zero to Superhero – backed down after more than two years, just before a hearing in London. Their double shame (first coming across as bullies, then failing) raises the question: how well do publishers fare when they sue or are sued – are they legal superheroes or zeroes                                                                                                                                                    Regina v Penguin, AKA the Chatterley trial (1960)
The crown sought the banning of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover under the Obscene Publications Act, and equally ill-advisedly the prosecution was led by fuddy-duddy Mervyn Griffith-Jones, who notoriously urged jurors to reject the book as one they would not wish their “wife or servants to read”. They backed Penguin’s right to publish instead, in a case seen as heralding 60s permissiveness (or, as portrayed in Larkin’s “Annus Mirabilis”, the arrival of “sexual intercourse”).   Publisher win  MORE

   

                                         

 

Howard Hughes v McGraw-Hill (1972)McGraw-Hill believed they’d pulled off a coup by acquiring the “autobiography” of reclusive tycoon Howard Hughes, based on interviews with Clifford Irving. But Hughes angrily telephoned reporters and sued the publisher, saying he’d had no dealings with Irving, who was swiftly exposed as a hoaxer. (McGraw-Hill cheques totalling $650,000 had gone to an “HR Hughes” who turned out to be Helga Hughes, an alias used by Irving’s wife.) Publisher loss
Mr X v Chatto and DJ Taylor (1992)In his novel Real Life, the writer absent-mindedly gave a media figure’s name to his book’s Soho porn baron, chum of the Krays and maker of the film Spank Academy. Awkwardly, Taylor had accidentally also given other personal details about Mr X (eg where he lived) to the fictional character. He paid half of the out-of-court settlement of “the lower end of five figures”. Publisher loss