Random House vs. Writers

A lot of people are talking about Random House's attempt to claim they have electronic rights on all of the books in their back list.

Their argument seems odd considering they already lost the battle over five years ago; travel back in time to 2001 when Rosetta Books decided it was going to publish electronic works from several authors; the argument was the same--Random House did not control electronic rights because it wasn't in the contract. The courts sided with Rosetta Books.

Authors, by and large, aren't upset because they don't want their books published electronically (though some are); they're upset that they are getting the same cut that they would on traditional books even though publishing a book electronically cost next to nothing.