Authors Guild Says Kindle Lending Library Is "Outside the Bounds of the Publisher's Authority"

PublishersLunch

In a strongly worded memo issued Monday afternoon, the Authors Guild took issue with Amazon's Kindle Lending Library for Prime customers, in particular those titles available without express permission from publishers and authors. "How can Amazon get away with this? By giving its boilerplate contract with these publishers a tortured reading," the Guild said, adding that permission appeared to be dispensed with "because, as Amazon apparently sees it, its contracts with these publishers merely require it to pay publishers the wholesale price of the books that Amazon Prime customers download."

The reasoning is "nonsense", from the AG's understanding of Amazon’s standard contractual terms: "publishers did not surrender this level of control to the retailer. Amazon’s boilerplate terms specifically contemplate the sale of e-books, not giveaways, subscriptions, or lending." In other words, the Guild asserts Amazon "appears to be boldly breaching its contracts with these publishers."

As for publishers who did license their content for a flat fee directly to Amazon for use in the Kindle Lending Library, as we outlined in our series of posts last week, the Guild takes issue with that arrangement as well, saying "our reading of the standard terms of these contracts is that they do not have the right to do so without the prior approval of the books' authors." The Guild asks authors to get in touch with their publishers and agents should they object to their books being included or if there is the possibility of receiving extra compensation.
Authors Guild blog