Fredrik Colting, who was sued by J. D. Salinger's estate several years ago for publishing an unauthorized sequel to "The Catcher in the Rye," is now being sued by four literary estates, representing Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Kerouac, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. In addition, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster have filed a copyright lawsuit against Mr. Colting and his partner, Melissa Medina, for releasing illustrated children's books based on those authors' works.
The complaint, which was filed Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, claims that KinderGuides are "unauthorized derivative" works that lift the plot, characters and settings from copyrighted books. "Colting once again proceeds to brazenly infringe the rights of different authors, and the authors' heirs and publishers, in complete disregard of copyright law," the complaint says. "If defendants truly wish to introduce young children to the classics, there are literally thousands of public-domain works from which they could choose."
The complaint, which was filed Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, claims that KinderGuides are "unauthorized derivative" works that lift the plot, characters and settings from copyrighted books. "Colting once again proceeds to brazenly infringe the rights of different authors, and the authors' heirs and publishers, in complete disregard of copyright law," the complaint says. "If defendants truly wish to introduce young children to the classics, there are literally thousands of public-domain works from which they could choose."