Ellora’s Cave sued again, this time by Fifth Third Bank.

A while back, Christina Brashear of Samhain, sued Ellora’s Cave, including Tina Engler and her mother, because something didn’t smell very fresh with their accounts.

After the defendants dragged their asses for years, the presiding judge handed down an epic slap,¹ and ruled for the plaintiff. (Whether or not Brashear ever saw a penny is unknown).

This time, Fifth Third Bank is suing them, apparently over the infamous, gaudily decorated bus used at conventions.

Who won? (EC v DA)

(See update at the end)

As I mentioned the other day, I’m still following #notchilled, because there are still many authors and other contractors, who have not been fully paid for their work.¹

Tina Engler/Jaid Black has her own narrative–but then, she always has looked at things from a very…special point of view, hasn’t she?

Anyhoodle…

A few not-so-brief thoughts (EC v DA)

So DA and EC settled. Well. Huh. #notchilled

— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan) October 22, 2015

So.

That happened.

And #notchilled basically exploded.

For any of my readers who are not aware, erotic romance/erotica publisher Ellora’s Cave filed a defamation suit against the blog Dear Author, and the blog’s founder and owner, Jane Litte aka Jen Frederick.

The basis for the lawsuit is the publication, back in September of 2014, of The Curious Case of Ellora’s Cave. If you have a few days to spare, there are a number of interesting posts written about the case in the intervening thirteen (ye gads!) months. You can find links to quite a few of those at the bottom of this post. (Please note that I have continued to add new links at the end, particularly to Courtney Milan’s and Deirdre Saoirse Moen’s posts explaining some of the legal stuff in layman terms.)

A couple of things on the EC v DA suit (the Ann Jacobs update)

After a few months of quiet, shit is getting real (h/t to Courtney Milan).

Ellora’s Cave author Ann Jacobs has filed a motion to intervene as a third party in the defamation lawsuit against Dear Author. Ms Jacobs also filed a counterclaim to the suit.

Courtney Milan is hosting both documents (motion to intervene, counterclaim), and she also explains what this means, here. Deirdre Saoirse Moen discusses her own perspective here.

I call your attention to the discussion, in Ms Milan’s blog, of what this motion by Ms Jacobs can mean for all the many–oh so many!–Ellora’s Cave authors, and other subcontractors, who can make the argument that the publisher breached its contracts with them. The fact that a class action against Ellora’s Cave, that would benefit people who have been mistreated–late payments, incorrect royalty statements and checks, derogatory statements by Tina Engler/Jaid Black about the very people who made EC succeed, and more–is legally possible…