Baupost Says Copy of Seth Klarman's Book on Amazon Was Not Authorized

(Bloomberg) -- Baupost Group said the version of Seth Klarman’s 1991 investment book, “Margin of Safety,” that appeared on Amazon.com was published without his approval and that his legal team is taking action.

Klarman, a hedge fund legend and Baupost’s chief executive officer, hasn’t authorized republication of the book in any form. The Boston-based firm said in a statement Tuesday that what showed up on Amazon was a copyright violation.

The Kindle version of the book appeared online earlier this month and was being sold for $9.99. It was no longer available on Amazon as of 11:31 a.m. Eastern time.

“This book has been removed,” an Amazon.com spokesman said in emailed statement. “Amazon respects the intellectual property of others and takes copyright violations very seriously.”

Hard copies of the book, which has long been out of print, have fetched as much as $2,500 among collectors. Photocopied versions have been known to circulate among analysts who are too poor -- or too tight-fisted -- to pay up for the real thing.

The Kindle version of Klarman’s book appeared to suggest publication was linked to Oceanofpdf.com, an organization that offers free book downloads online. In a mission statement posted on its website, Oceanofpdf says: “We believe that knowledge and information should be free and accessible to everyone around the globe.”

An email to Nicholas Liam, listed as a contact on Oceanofpdf’s website, wasn’t immediately answered.

--With assistance from Spencer Soper.

To contact the reporters on this story: Charles Stein in Boston at cstein4@bloomberg.net;Erik Schatzker in New York at eschatzker@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella, Josh Friedman

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