Award-winning author at odds with publisher over copyright issues
The legal battle between award-winning author Baek Heena and publishing house Hansolsoobook has regained attention after Baek won the 2020 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Sweden for her debut book “Cloud Bread.”
The two sides clashed over the copyright of the 2004 book, leading them to confront each other in court.
Recently, the upper court upheld the lower court’s ruling which sided with the publisher.
Hansolsoobook, which owns the copyright and republication rights of “Cloud Bread,” according to contracts between the two parties, released a statement justifying its legal rights earlier this week, as the legal battle drew fresh attention from the media after Baek won the prestigious children’s book award.
The publisher also denied rumors about its income from sales of the book.
“We know there’s a rumor about 44 billion won was made from book sales. This is not true… we signed contracts with the author twice — the first contract about publication and copyright and then another one about incentives. She was aware that the copyright of her work would belong to the publisher and it was possible her work would be used in other art formats.”
The publishing company said it earned 2 billion won from sales of the book and other goods.
About 400,000 copies of the book have been sold so far.
The publisher denied Baek’s claim that it handed over the copyright of the book to a third party without her prior consent, saying the two sides had a verbal agreement regarding the transfer.
But the company failed to make a final agreement with Baek as she made “unreasonable demands,” it claimed. It also pledged to pay royalties for the book sales.
The statement came out about one week after Baek won the Swedish children’s book award, and the author and illustrator has been openly criticizing the publishing company for the allegedly unfair contract over her book’s copyright.
Baek is a rare children’s book author with a fandom of both children and parents. Her success owes a lot to her hugely successful debut book “Cloud Bread.”
Since winning the international award, Baek has been discussing the matter through various channels, claiming that the terms of the contracts were unfair, in an apparent effort to win back the copyright of her work. In multiple interviews including one with The Korea Times, she insisted that she wasn’t aware of the possibility that her artwork could be developed into other art formats when signing the contract.
After Hansolsoobook released the statement, Baek hit back again, saying the firm’s claim is groundless and it is trying to denounce her.
“Since the copyright issue has been surfacing, [the publishing company] insisted that the negotiation [over the copyright] failed because of my unreasonable request. What on Earth is the company trying to achieve by denouncing a writer?” Baek wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
“I have felt enough pain. I want to go back to my life again. I am now too exhausted and sick. I want to create more artwork in my long life.”