Publisher reaches settlement with Scott Morrison’s adviser Nico Louw. Asked whether senior political figures were among those sent the memoir, CEO says, ‘How senior do you want?’

This article is more than 4 months old

This article is more than 4 months old

Some of the biggest names in politics will be drawn into the controversy over pirating of Malcolm Turnbull’s autobiography after his publisher reached a settlement on the issue.

On Tuesday evening Hardie Grant reached a settlement with Scott Morrison’s adviser Nico Louw over claims he distributed unauthorised copies of Turnbull’s book, A Bigger Picture, before its formal release on Monday.

“An undisclosed sum was settled for and he’s given us where he got [the digital copy] from and where it went to,” the chief executive of the publishing house, Sandy Grant, told Guardian Australia Wednesday.

“And we are going to pursue those really aggressively now because there’s quite a lot at stake frankly. The number of copies that have gone out is ridiculous.”

The publisher declined to disclose the number of people on the Louw list but at the weekend Turnbull suggested there were 59 direct recipients. That did not include anyone who might have received it in turn from them.

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Grant declined to give a number but said, “They are legion.”

He later used the figure of 20,000 in another context.

He declined to identify any recipients, but asked whether senior figures were involved, replied: “How senior do you want?”

Grant said: “And people in the Liberal party were gleefully sending it around.

“We are going to ask if they have deleted or destroyed it and to tell us anyone they have sent it on to. They are legion.”

That was underlined on Wednesday morning when the ABC presenter Patricia Karvelas told her audience she had received five copies.

Asked on Wedneday whether the prime minister had received an unauthorised copy, and if so what he had done with it, a spokesman for Morrison said: “These are legal matters, therefore we cannot comment at this stage.”

Ministers have already admitted they were sent copies. On Sunday the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said on the ABC’s Insiders she had deleted the item without reading it. She declined to reveal the source.

Others who have acknowledged being sent the book include the agriculture minister, David Littleproud, who said a friend sent him a copy on WhatsApp and that he also deleted it.

The leak of the book was initially seen as a bit of mischief by Liberals who were not big fans of Turnbull when he was prime minister.

But the publishing industry sees it as an example of a copyright infringement which is damaging to their finances and survival.

Grant pointed to the government’s recent action against the social media giant Facebook based on the principle it should not use newspaper content without paying for it.

“Meanwhile the Liberal party don’t seem to believe that at all if it doesn’t suit them.”

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He said copyright breach was potentially a criminal offence and that the Australian federal police had been asked to investigate the Turnbull case.

“If someone was running around pulling them out of bookshops they might do something. There would be 20,000 shoplifting charges,” Grant said.

Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday that publishers were concerned that “digital piracy, which is theft”, “undermines their whole business”.

“It undermines Australian jobs, you know, particularly at a time like this when bookshops and publishers are struggling to survive to have copies of a book — any book —... being widely circulated,” he said in a virtual National Press Club lunch recorded on Tuesday.

Turnbull suggested people were familiar with the piracy of copyright material.

“In some respects, I think the illegal file sharing of music by platforms like Napster years ago, in many people’s minds, normalised this practice,” he said on the recording broadcast Wednesday.

He said ending piracy was life and death for publishers, as it is for the music, film and television industries.

The controversy erupted on Saturday when Turnbull was alerted to the unauthorised distribution of his book. A Liberal MP told Turnbull he had received five copies and a journalist had six.

A notice of complaint was sent to Louw on Saturday by lawyers representing the publishers.

It said the instruction was that Louw was “responsible for unauthorised distribution of my client’s book” in digital form.

“It occurred on a massive scale,” the lawyers said in an email and text message.

On Sunday a spokesman for Morrison said: “The prime minister’s office will not comment on legal proceedings.

“Staff have been reminded of their obligations under copyright law, and of the high standards of conduct expected of them.”

Louw has been contacted for comment.