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Publishers suing Meta oppose textbook authors' bid for their own interim class counsel, calling it premature and unnecessary

The plaintiffs in Elsevier v. Meta (Elsevier, Cengage, McGraw Hill, Hachette, Macmillan, and author Scott Turow and his company) filed an opposition in the textbook authors' separate suit, Sullivan v. Meta. The Sullivan plaintiffs have asked Judge Chhabria to appoint their lawyers interim counsel for a subclass of textbook authors. The publishers argue the request is premature: class counsel is normally appointed at class certification, which in Sullivan is at least fifteen months away, and any author-publisher conflict over dividing a judgment or settlement is speculative until money exists. They say authors and publishers hold interests in the same works and "rise or fall together" in proving infringement, that their own proposed class already includes textbook authors, and that their complaint already pleads the market-dilution and substitution theories the Sullivan plaintiffs say only they would develop. They ask that the motion be denied without prejudice to renewal later. The filing says the judge invited them to respond at the Sept. 25 conference. These are one side's arguments; the court has not ruled. The hearing is set for Oct. 29, 2026.