Random House Settles E-Books Lawsuit

Random House Inc. has settled a lawsuit against an e-book publisher that was selling digital versions of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle” and seven other popular titles.

RosettaBooks will continue publishing the works, which predate the rise of the Web, and will collaborate with Random House on additional books.

But the settlement leaves unresolved the issue of whether authors or publishers control rights to e-books when the contract has no specific language about the electronic format. With rights to countless old titles at stake, the publishing industry had followed the case closely.