Issue No. 037 · August 5, 2026

Crave Copyright Plaintiff Faces Fees and Appeal Bond

A federal judge found the defendants in a copyright case over Tracy Wolff's Crave novels entitled to attorney fees and ordered plaintiff Lynne Freeman to post a $150,000 bond to continue her appeal.

Key points

• The court dismissed Freeman's infringement claims in March after finding no substantial similarity between her unpublished drafts and the first four Crave novels.
• The new ruling called the claim objectively unreasonable and found that the works could have been compared much earlier in the litigation.
• The defendants requested about $3.4 million in fees, but the court signaled that the final award will be reduced.
• Freeman has appealed the dismissal and has filed additional cases involving later books and retailers that sold the series.