Author sued for making children's books from classic novels

A Swedish writer is being sued for infringing copyright after making children’s versions of novels such as Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Fredrik Colting is the subject of a suit filed by Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and the estates of Ernest Hemingway, Arthur C Clarke, Truman Capote and Jack Kerouac. He has allegedly infringed copyright of On the Road (by Kerouac), Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Old Man and The Sea (Hemingway) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Clarke) through the company Moppet Books.

According to the complaint, filed in the US, each “infringing title is nothing other than an unauthorised, derivative work, taking its plot, setting, themes, sequence of events and principal characters from each of the novels wholesale”.

It adds: “The injury caused by defendants’ infringement is not purely monetary, as it also impacts the reputation of the novels, their authors and, by extension, the plaintiff heirs and publishers.”

The complaint also points out that a US court stopped Colting releasing a book based on Catcher in the Rye, entitled www.thebookseller.com/news/publisher-hires-lawyer-defend-salinger-sequel">60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, in the country. 

The suit is demanding that all copies be recalled and profits along with damages be awarded to the plaintiffs.