Lloyd Jassin
@copylaw.bsky.social
Literary attorney. Former publishing executive. I write about copyright, trademark, and defamation law. www.copylaw.org
Pseudonyms ≠ libel shield. Memoirist Amy Griffin used fake names, but details still outed her alleged abuser. Even “fictional” characters can trigger liability if readers connect the dots—a perfect example of why pseudonyms don’t equal libel protection.
The Billionaire, the Psychedelics and the Best-Selling Memoir
www.nytimes.com
September 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Pseudonyms ≠ libel shield. Memoirist Amy Griffin used fake names, but details still outed her alleged abuser. Even “fictional” characters can trigger liability if readers connect the dots—a perfect example of why pseudonyms don’t equal libel protection.
Publishers show warning signs before bankruptcy:
• Late/missing royalty payments
• No royalty statements
Pro tip: Negotiate a “termination for failure to account or pay” clause in your contract. This can help you reclaim rights before your book gets tied up in bankruptcy.
• Late/missing royalty payments
• No royalty statements
Pro tip: Negotiate a “termination for failure to account or pay” clause in your contract. This can help you reclaim rights before your book gets tied up in bankruptcy.
August 6, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Publishers show warning signs before bankruptcy:
• Late/missing royalty payments
• No royalty statements
Pro tip: Negotiate a “termination for failure to account or pay” clause in your contract. This can help you reclaim rights before your book gets tied up in bankruptcy.
• Late/missing royalty payments
• No royalty statements
Pro tip: Negotiate a “termination for failure to account or pay” clause in your contract. This can help you reclaim rights before your book gets tied up in bankruptcy.
“In an era of content overload, curation and credibility matter more than ever.” — Jared and Julia Drake, new owners of IndieReader booklife.com/news/authors...
IndieReader Under New Ownership
A husband-and-wife PR team will carry on the organization's legacy.
booklife.com
August 5, 2025 at 6:33 PM
“In an era of content overload, curation and credibility matter more than ever.” — Jared and Julia Drake, new owners of IndieReader booklife.com/news/authors...
“No Kings” rally in Morristown, NJ—the military capital of the American Revolution.
June 14, 2025 at 8:05 PM
“No Kings” rally in Morristown, NJ—the military capital of the American Revolution.
BBC and Agatha Christie estate respond to 'deepfake' controversy mashable.com/article/agat...
BBC and Agatha Christie estate respond to 'deepfake' controversy
A new writing course uses artificial intelligence to recreate Agatha Christie's likeness.
mashable.com
May 2, 2025 at 2:02 AM
BBC and Agatha Christie estate respond to 'deepfake' controversy mashable.com/article/agat...
Reposted by Lloyd Jassin
🎉 With awe and excitement — my client Lauren Roberts’ Fearless launched with record-breaking global sales: 266K+ copies sold on day one! Congrats to Lauren and the stellar S&S US & UK teams. The first of many milestones in a truly remarkable career. #PowerlessTrilogy
April 11, 2025 at 2:48 AM
🎉 With awe and excitement — my client Lauren Roberts’ Fearless launched with record-breaking global sales: 266K+ copies sold on day one! Congrats to Lauren and the stellar S&S US & UK teams. The first of many milestones in a truly remarkable career. #PowerlessTrilogy
Reposted by Lloyd Jassin
A Delaware judge finds the right-wing network aired false and defamatory statements about Dominion Voting Systems' role in the 2020 presidential election. A jury trial is slated for late April.
Judge finds Newsmax aired false and defamatory claims about voting-tech company
A Delaware judge finds the right-wing network aired false and defamatory statements about Dominion Voting Systems' role in the 2020 presidential election. A jury trial is slated for late April.
www.npr.org
April 10, 2025 at 1:09 AM
A Delaware judge finds the right-wing network aired false and defamatory statements about Dominion Voting Systems' role in the 2020 presidential election. A jury trial is slated for late April.
🚨 A Dunkirk for endangered federal data: As federal websites face quiet erasure; volunteer librarians are racing to rescue endangered public data. www.libraryjournal.com/story/coordi...
Coordinating Data Rescue Efforts: Q&A with Lynda Kellam
To help coordinate and support the work of saving government data, ensure that individual efforts didn’t duplicate one another, and provide a secure, accessible repository for archived material, a gro...
www.libraryjournal.com
April 4, 2025 at 11:45 PM
🚨 A Dunkirk for endangered federal data: As federal websites face quiet erasure; volunteer librarians are racing to rescue endangered public data. www.libraryjournal.com/story/coordi...
Blank Book Proposal
Title: An Unexamined Life
By: ___________________
Concept:
A provocatively titled blank journal that invites the reader to confront—or avoid—their inner life. Whether it’s meant to be ironic, motivational, or existentially humorous, the blank pages say it all.
Title: An Unexamined Life
By: ___________________
Concept:
A provocatively titled blank journal that invites the reader to confront—or avoid—their inner life. Whether it’s meant to be ironic, motivational, or existentially humorous, the blank pages say it all.
April 1, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Blank Book Proposal
Title: An Unexamined Life
By: ___________________
Concept:
A provocatively titled blank journal that invites the reader to confront—or avoid—their inner life. Whether it’s meant to be ironic, motivational, or existentially humorous, the blank pages say it all.
Title: An Unexamined Life
By: ___________________
Concept:
A provocatively titled blank journal that invites the reader to confront—or avoid—their inner life. Whether it’s meant to be ironic, motivational, or existentially humorous, the blank pages say it all.
I encourage writers to register their works with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). They distribute royalties to their members twice a year and—based on the statement I received today for my book—the amounts can be meaningful. You can learn more and register here: www.alcs.co.uk.
ALCS
www.alcs.co.uk
March 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
I encourage writers to register their works with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). They distribute royalties to their members twice a year and—based on the statement I received today for my book—the amounts can be meaningful. You can learn more and register here: www.alcs.co.uk.
Curious how Cambridge University Press is handling AI licensing? CUP has asked 17,000+ authors to opt in for AI rights via contract addenda — offering royalties on net AI licensing revenue.
In this interview, CUP explains their approach, transparency goals & author protections. shorturl.at/yp30u
In this interview, CUP explains their approach, transparency goals & author protections. shorturl.at/yp30u
AI Licensing: An Interview with Ben Denne of Cambridge University Press
We’ve heard from lots of authors with questions about AI licensing of their works by their publishers. Cambridge University Press is one that has been in the news because it has undertaken a projec…
www.authorsalliance.org
March 25, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Curious how Cambridge University Press is handling AI licensing? CUP has asked 17,000+ authors to opt in for AI rights via contract addenda — offering royalties on net AI licensing revenue.
In this interview, CUP explains their approach, transparency goals & author protections. shorturl.at/yp30u
In this interview, CUP explains their approach, transparency goals & author protections. shorturl.at/yp30u
I was pleased to contribute to this Wall Street Journal (3/13/25) article on Meta’s legal fight to stop the sale and promotion of a former employee’s memoir.
Takeaway: Confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses aren’t just boilerplate — they can shape or silence a story. tinyurl.com/4skuk47h
Takeaway: Confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses aren’t just boilerplate — they can shape or silence a story. tinyurl.com/4skuk47h
She Promised Not to Speak Ill of Meta. Then Wrote a Tell-All. Now, She Can’t Talk About It.
An arbitrator ruled that a former Meta employee has to halt publicity push for her new book; publisher plans to keep promoting it.
www.wsj.com
March 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
I was pleased to contribute to this Wall Street Journal (3/13/25) article on Meta’s legal fight to stop the sale and promotion of a former employee’s memoir.
Takeaway: Confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses aren’t just boilerplate — they can shape or silence a story. tinyurl.com/4skuk47h
Takeaway: Confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses aren’t just boilerplate — they can shape or silence a story. tinyurl.com/4skuk47h
Trump International Links… Elba? Now is the time to think of post-Trump reconstruction. Perhaps his true legacy is the cycle of vengeance — answering retribution with retribution. It feels inevitable, but grievance leaves little room for healing or wisdom. Where do we go from here?
March 19, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Trump International Links… Elba? Now is the time to think of post-Trump reconstruction. Perhaps his true legacy is the cycle of vengeance — answering retribution with retribution. It feels inevitable, but grievance leaves little room for healing or wisdom. Where do we go from here?
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Thaler v. Perlmutter confirms what the U.S. Copyright Office has long maintained: copyright law only protects human creativity. If you’re using AI, think of it as a tool — not an author.
t.co/JJnsRZ0KUM?s...
t.co/JJnsRZ0KUM?s...
Opinion Filed (Merits Panel) – #01208720945 in Stephen Thaler v. Shira Perlmutter (D.C. Cir., 23-5233) – CourtListener.com
OPINION [2106229] filed (Pages: 24) for the Court by Judge Millett. [23-5233] [Entered: 03/18/2025 09:36 AM]
t.co
March 19, 2025 at 8:26 AM
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Thaler v. Perlmutter confirms what the U.S. Copyright Office has long maintained: copyright law only protects human creativity. If you’re using AI, think of it as a tool — not an author.
t.co/JJnsRZ0KUM?s...
t.co/JJnsRZ0KUM?s...
New AI Author Guidelines by Wiley www.wiley.com/en-us/publis...
March 18, 2025 at 10:58 AM
New AI Author Guidelines by Wiley www.wiley.com/en-us/publis...
Congratulations on the launch of Words & Money, Andrew! www.wordsandmoney.com/
Words & Money
Publishers. Libraries. Readers. Writers. The Business of Reading and Writing in the Digital Age.
www.wordsandmoney.com
March 17, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Congratulations on the launch of Words & Money, Andrew! www.wordsandmoney.com/
Exciting news! My client, Lauren Roberts, has been shortlisted for the prestigious British Book Awards 2025 Book of the Year in the Children’s Fiction category for RECKLESS. Congratulations, Lauren!
March 17, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Exciting news! My client, Lauren Roberts, has been shortlisted for the prestigious British Book Awards 2025 Book of the Year in the Children’s Fiction category for RECKLESS. Congratulations, Lauren!
Meta just learned the hard way that having the right to enforce a contract isn’t the same as it being a good idea. I’m quoted in WSJ about arbitration ruling barring former employee from promoting her book—while the publisher keeps pushing forward. #publishing #contracts www.wsj.com/business/med...
She Promised Not to Speak Ill of Meta. Then Wrote a Tell-All. Now, She Can’t Talk About It.
An arbitrator ruled that a former Meta employee has to halt publicity push for her new book; publisher plans to keep promoting it.
www.wsj.com
March 15, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Meta just learned the hard way that having the right to enforce a contract isn’t the same as it being a good idea. I’m quoted in WSJ about arbitration ruling barring former employee from promoting her book—while the publisher keeps pushing forward. #publishing #contracts www.wsj.com/business/med...
Cengage settles class action over digital royalty allocations—authors to receive a share of $20.99M fund. Lawsuit claimed unfair revenue apportionment slashed royalties by up to 50%. tinyurl.com/a29r7b38
Bernstein v. CENGAGE LEARNING, INC., Dist. Court, SD New York 2025 - Google Scholar
tinyurl.com
March 3, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Cengage settles class action over digital royalty allocations—authors to receive a share of $20.99M fund. Lawsuit claimed unfair revenue apportionment slashed royalties by up to 50%. tinyurl.com/a29r7b38
Reposted by Lloyd Jassin
The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.
February 15, 2025 at 5:49 PM
The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.
A reminder of what happens when you offend the sovereign. In 1662, King Charles II had Parliament pass the Licensing of the Press Act, aiming to curb “seditious, treasonable, and unlicensed” books. #Censorship #History
February 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
A reminder of what happens when you offend the sovereign. In 1662, King Charles II had Parliament pass the Licensing of the Press Act, aiming to curb “seditious, treasonable, and unlicensed” books. #Censorship #History
If Trump takes control of the USPS, guts Section 230, and ‘opens up’ libel laws, it’s a dangerous trifecta: restricted voting access, silenced online speech, and weakened press freedom. The pillars of democracy can’t survive that kind of attack. fox8.com/news/trump-e...
Trump expected to take control of US Postal Service: Report
The US Postal Service might soon cease to exist as you know it.
fox8.com
February 21, 2025 at 4:46 PM
If Trump takes control of the USPS, guts Section 230, and ‘opens up’ libel laws, it’s a dangerous trifecta: restricted voting access, silenced online speech, and weakened press freedom. The pillars of democracy can’t survive that kind of attack. fox8.com/news/trump-e...