Random House, Inc. v. Rosetta Books LLC
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
150 F. Supp. 2d 613 (2001)
Authors had granted Random House (plaintiff) the exclusive right to "print, publish and sell" their works "in book form" under agreements signed before digital books existed, while withholding certain other distribution rights; when those same authors later licensed ebook rights to Rosetta Books (defendant), Random House sued for copyright infringement and sought a preliminary injunction, arguing its "in book form" grant implicitly covered ebooks as a modern extension of the original right.
Whether ambiguity arising from modern technological developments not contemplated when a contract was signed should be resolved based on the language the parties actually used in the contract.