NEW YORK (AP) _ Stephen Hawking has asked the Federal Trade Commission to stop publication of an upcoming book.
The physicist alleges in a complaint that ``The Theory of Everything'' will ``constitute a fraud on the public'' because it simply repackages old material, including Hawking's million-selling ``A Brief History of Time.'' The complaint, filed last month with the FTC by Hawking's lawyers _ Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker _ alleges that New Millennium Press had permission only to release an audio version of lectures the physicist gave in 1989. Those lectures are highly similar in content to ``A Brief History of Time'' and appeared briefly in print form in 1996 under the title ``The Cambridge Lectures: Life Works.''
Hawking protested the 1996 publication, which eventually went out of print.
The material now has been retitled ``The Theory of Everything'' and is scheduled to come out next month in both audio and print form. New Millennium co-president and publisher Michael Viner said he has the right to release the book.
``It's not true,'' Viner said Wednesday from his office in Beverly Hills, Calif., when asked if he had violated his agreement with the physicist. ``Hawking and I used to talk about these lectures and how proud he was of them.''
Viner said ``The Theory of Everything'' already has 100,000 copies in print. As of Wednesday afternoon, the book was No. 47 on the bestseller list of Amazon.com.
The original contract was signed in 1988, when Hawking was preparing the lecture series and Viner was head of Dove Books-on-Tape. The contract gives Viner permission to publish in ``written form the text of said recording.''
Hawking's agent, Al Zuckerman, acknowledged Wednesday that ``maybe I was a little negligent in letting Viner put that language in there.'' But he said the understanding was that ``text'' simply meant a transcript to accompany the audio book.
``At the time Dove was only publishing audio books,'' Zuckerman said.
Viner left Dove in 1997 and founded New Millennium a year later. New Millennium started out in film and television development but now also publishes audio and print books.
Court injunctions, not the FTC, are the traditional way to prevent a book's publication. But Hawking's representatives said he is not physically strong enough to withstand a courtroom proceeding. Hawking, 60, suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurological ailment also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He is confined to a wheelchair and speaks through a computer synthesizer.
Another New Millennium book was also the subject of recent legal action. Best-selling author David Baldacci, whose novels include ``Total Control'' and ``Absolute Power,'' won a preliminary court injunction last week against New Millennium to stop publication of a mystery anthology.
Baldacci's name appeared in large foil letters above the title of the collection, ``The Mighty Johns,'' also the title of Baldacci's contribution. A federal judge ruled that the book was misleading to consumers, who may mistake the anthology for Baldacci's next novel.
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