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2nd edition,1st printing |
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2nd edition,2nd-4th printings |
Flynn vs. A.K. Peters is a lawsuit I inititated against the publisher of a book I co-authored. The book, Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation, sprang from my work while a Research Scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the Mobile Robotics Group under Professor Rodney Brooks. I wrote the book with a colleague, Joseph Jones. Mobile Robots was initially to be published by Jones & Bartlett, but the contract was re-assigned to a start-up publishing house run by Alice and Klaus Peters, A.K. Peters, Ltd.
Mobile Robots taught readers how to build a robot. In fact, it taught readers how to build two types of robots. With step-by-step instructions, the book walked readers through designing, fabricating and programming a microprocessor-controlled autonomous mobile robot, Rug Warrior, which had a variety of sensors and behaviors. There was also an even simpler robot, TuteBot, a tutorial robot, developed in Chapter 2, which walked complete novices through the process of building an analog-circuit-based robot using only Lego building blocks and simple electronics available from Radio Shack. I worked extremely hard on Chapter 2, polishing it and revising it many times, adding photographs and detailed illustrations so that it would be as clear as possible for novice robot enthusiasts.
The first edition of Mobile Robots was a fantastic success. It was a Library of Science best-seller and several of my colleagues in the robotics community later went on to publish with A.K. Peters.
Unfortunately, the second edition of Mobile Robots has been a disaster. A.K. Peters (AKP) lured me into a second edition, promising a third author who would add a curriculum chapter for the high-school market. This third author was to be Bruce Seiger, the former high school science teacher for the Peters children who had beta-tested a draft of our first edition with his after-school robotics club.
However, AKP never delivered on their promise. In fact, behind my back, they extended a separate contract to Jones and Seiger for the curriculum as a separate book. I was led to believe that Seiger was to write a curriculum chapter for the 2nd edition of Mobile Robots, and the deal was that he would take half my royalties. I felt I was being very generous in accepting this, as the third author would contribute only one chapter, while I had spent years on the first edition of the book. Neither Jones nor AKP ever told me about this separate curriculum contract, and yet they allowed Seiger to be an author of Mobile Robots without writing any curriculum chapter. Seiger made so little contribution to the book, that Jones at one point even kicked him out (with my concurrence). However, after Jones kicked Seiger off the book, and told Klaus Peters as much, Klaus Peters had Seiger working on it anyway while Jones was on vacation, and then got Jones to reverse his decision. AKP had Seiger do the secretarial work, which the publisher was supposed to do (updating web addresses in an appendix). Klaus Peters also gave permission for Seiger to change what I wrote in Chapter 2. I never gave permission for anyone to change what I had written, and I never said anyone could be a third author for doing secretarial work. For this, Seiger would take 50% of my royalties in addition to any royalties from the separate curriculum book (a derivative work from which I was not to receive any royalties)!
A.K. Peters then sent Mobile Robots 2nd edition to the printer without my knowledge, and with Seiger listed as an author. I was not told the book was in the process of being printed until, realizing they had not sent me the new contract for the 2nd edition, Jones sent me a copy of the contract and asked me to sign it. Seeing Seiger's name on the contract, but having last heard that Seiger had been kicked out, I refused to sign the contract and asked to see the manuscript. I was then told that the book was at the printing house and there were no possibilities for any changes. When I finally saw the manuscript and was told that Seiger had made changes to Chapter 2, I went through the entire manuscript and found that Seiger had totally botched Chapter 2, introducing numerous errors and making it impossible for readers to build a functioning TuteBot. Seiger's sole purpose for being added as a third author was to contribute something new, a curriculum chapter to extend the market for the book to secondary education, which he never did. I never gave anyone permission to change what I had written. To add insult to injury, AKP listed Seiger's name ahead of mine in the author list on the cover!
I contacted A.K. Peters and told them of these errors and asked them to take Seiger's name off the book and return Chapter 2 to the way I had originally written it. AKP refused. This lawsuit ensued.
My position is that Bruce Seiger's name on the cover of Mobile Robots is false authorship. I never authorized the printing of the second edition. Bruce Seiger's name must be removed from the author list and Chapter 2 returned to its original form. AKP's behavior violates the ethical principles we hold dear in science. I won't condone it and I won't go along with it. This lawsuit is my pursuit of truth in scientific publishing.