lawsuits

Harper Lee Sues Over To Kill a Mockingbird Copyright

Harper Lee.

In a show of Atticus Finch-like determination, Harper Lee is suing her literary agent over the copyright to her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The reclusive 87-year-old author alleges that Samuel Pinkus “took advantage of her declining hearing and eyesight seven years ago to get her to assign the book’s copyright to him” without payment after his father-in-law, Lee’s longtime agent Eugene Winick, became ill. The lawsuit also claims that Pinkus ignored Lee’s previous attempts to get the copyright reassigned, and that he failed to respond to offers to make the novel available as an e-book. Lee is asking that the copyright be turned over to her, along with all the To Kill a Mockingbird commissions Pinkus received from 2007 onward. If people are still taking legal action over books, then how can they be coming to an end?

Harper Lee Sues Agent for Book Rights