Judge temporarily blocks new ‘Rye’

A Swedish author’s new book is so similar to J.D. Salinger’s classic novel “The Catcher in the Rye” that a New York judge said Wednesday she will carefully study copyright law before ruling whether it can be published in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts temporarily blocked publication of the book “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye” until she rules whether the book transforms Salinger’s original creation enough that it qualifies to be published as a “fair use” of a copyrighted work.

A ruling was anticipated in the next 10 days. The book was scheduled for U.S. release on Sept. 15, but the court dispute was likely to delay that.