| Textbook
Publishers Throw Down For Payback From
Counterfeiters on Amazon and Ebay
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Dec 4 – Textbook publishers
led by Pearson Education, Inc.
have sued and moved for
default judgment against those
they claim sell counterfeits
of their textbooks on Amazon,
Ebay and other
platforms.
On November
20, U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Judge Ronnie Abrams held
a proceeding. Inner City Press
covered it - and identified
itself when asked.
Two of the
defendants appeared, albeit
without lawyers. They were
each given thirty days to
respond. One of them stayed on
the line to give his email
address and get the contact
information for NYLAG.
Judge
Abrams to her credit
questioning the high monetary
awards the textbook publishers
were asking for against these
pro se defendants.
The
publishers responded with the
example of two apparently
related defendants -- Madhu
Gupta and Sourabh Gupta -- one
of whom had signed a $400,000
consent decree and then just
kept on selling counterfeit
textbooks.
There was talk of
the the need for deterrence,
of counterfeiting rings in
Jordan and publishers in
China.
Ultimately
the publishers, who cut in
just as Judge Abrams was
assessing each defendant or
violation $50,000 ($30,000 for
copyright and $20,000 for
trademark), said they will
submit more detailed
information about each
defendant by "tomorrow"
(Saturday) or by next week, or
after Thanksgiving. They
want asset freezes.
Among those
suing are also Bedford,
Freeman & Worth Publishing
Group, LLC, Cengage Learning,
Inc., Elsevier Inc. and
McGraw-Hill Global Education
Holdings,
LLC.
Nazir Yakub
Belim is already known to the
court; Michael Charles McKee
apologized for failing to
respond, not opening his
father's email to see the
notices from Amazon and Ebay.
Now on December
4, the plaintiffs' lawyer has
filed a letter specifying the
damages sought, including
$30,000 per copyright
infringed and $200,000 per
trademark infringed against
Mayloud Ascarate, Bronislav
Teplitskiy, Leonard Johnson
and others (Guptas, "maximum
statutory damages").
The case is
Pearson Education, Inc. et al
v. Doe 1 et al., 19-cv-7642
(Abrams)
***
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