By: E&P Staff A lawyer for New Millenium, which is publishing the Jayson Blair book, "Burning down My Masters' House" on March 6, said this morning that he had "problems" with The New York Times quoting from the book in a story today by reporter Jacques Sternberg. The newspaper obtained a copy of the book by simply ordering it from Amazon.com which sent it out before the on-sale date. The New York Daily News also quoted from the book today.
Ed Reilly, counsel for New Millenium, told Publishers Lunch, a popular e-mail newsletter produced by publishersmarketplace.com, that the Times was warned by the house earlier this week, after the paper's Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a memo to his staff, made it clear the newspaper had a copy of the book. Reilly said, "We have problems with the people that published it regardless of how they got, particularly with respect to The New York Times, who had been put on notice" that New Millennium "believed it would be a violation of our copyright" to reproduce portions of the book in advance of the March 6 publication date.
Others in the media who received advanced galleys of the book were asked to sign "confidentiality" agreements.
Reilly told Publishers Lunch he would be "moving on both fronts" today, although it was unclear whether he meant by "both" the Times and Daily News, or the Times and amazon.
Reilly noted that "We put a lot of trust in the retailers" and he indicated that, "Obviously we'll be dealing with them [Amazon] today to figure out what they did and why they did."
A reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer told E&P today that a local Barnes & Noble told them the Blair book was already on display at their store.
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