[mrgoldenbrown]

I think he's counting on the part of the contract that he describes as being roughly "If O'Reilly fails to do X, Y and Z, the rights automatically revert to me." It sounds like he is confident that it is O'Reilly that breached the contract, not him.

[ecspike]

There is also a provision in some publishing contracts that say that once the book goes out of print, the rights revert back to you.

[unreal37]

In publishing contracts I've entered into with major publishers, it usually says the rights revert back to me after 2 years of it being out of print. Not immediately.

[RougeFemme]

If that's the case here, refusing to print any more copies of the first edition is a bad business decision for O'Reily.

[jeremyjh]

Right and he's already banking on the fact that he has won that lawsuit.