Remember the 2021 New York Times Magazine piece “Bad Art Friend”? It’s not an easy scandal to summarize, but the upshot is that two writers (probably with little money to spare) ended up suing one another in court. One stood accused of plagiarism and copyright infringement; the other stood accused of defamation. A verdict has now arrived: The judge ruled that there was no copyright infringement and there was no defamation. Here’s a summary.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
