Zick Rubin and Brenda Ulrich Co-Author Article on Court Certifying Class of Textbook Authors in a Class Action

Archstone’s  Zick Rubin and  Brenda Ulrich authored a recent article for the Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) on the court’s certification in September, 2023, of  a class of textbook authors in the long-running class action brought by authors against Cengage Learning (Bernstein v. Cengage Learning, Inc.).  The suit alleges that Cengage unfairly apportioned the revenues it received from sales of “MindTap” digital interactive versions of the authors’ texts, arbitrarily allocating to the authors either 50% or 75% of these revenues and reducing royalties accordingly.  The class certification is a big victory for authors.   It allows many hundreds or thousands of Cengage authors to proceed in concert in pursuing claims of bad faith by Cengage and may prove to be important for textbook authors more generally in today’s digital environment.

To read the full article, please visit TAA’s blog.

For more information or to explore how this topic may affect you, please contact Zick Rubin or Brenda Ulrich.