January 5, 2022

Library Piracy Lawsuit

The U.S. Court for the Western District of Washington awarded $7.8 million in statutory damages to 12 Authors Guild members, Amazon Publishing, and Penguin Random House for 52 acts of copyright infringement in a default judgment against Kiss Library, shutting down the Ukraine-based piracy ring. Judge Marsha Pechman, senior district judge for the Western District, decided all claims for the plaintiffs and awarded $150,000 per infringed book, the maximum penalty allowed under U.S. law. The plaintiffs filed suit against the book piracy entity and its operators on July 7, 2020.“We could not be happier with the decision,” said Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild. “Authors rarely have the necessary resources to fight commercial-scale piracy and take on protracted litigation, so we are extremely grateful to Amazon Publishing and Penguin Random House for their collaboration on this action.” Kiss Library did business through dozens of domain names that illegally sold pirated ebooks at discounted prices to unsuspecting readers. The Authors Guild is the nation's oldest and largest professional organization for writers. Its mission is to empower working writers by advocating for the rights of authors and journalists. The Guild protects free speech and authors' copyrights, fights for fair contracts and a living wage and provides a community for all published authors.