Looks like KLC is out of print because of a copyright dispute

Like many of you I have been wondering what happened to KLC. It looks like Conning was working with CJK Dictionary Institute (founded by Halpern) to make a Chinese book/app. There were some disputes over pay, and because of that the relationship deteriorated, and CJK wanted the foreword written by Halpern in KLC removed.... or something like that.

"The May 2018 email appears to be a pragmatic and good-faith effort to resolve the parties' dispute. The tone appears professional and optimistic about the potential for resolution without litigation, although it ends with a prediction that artificial intelligence will end civilization as we know it."

I loled.

I got to know in the end of the last year that Conning was (is?) making through certain personal life troubles preventing him from dedicating his time to the continuation of Graded Readers. By extension, I thought the stopping of reprinting has something to do with that too. Well, if the dispute leads to breaking relations with CJKI, it will probably need the major remake of the Course, as it has numerous references to the KKLD in it, and also both the Dictionary and the Course cross-reference each other's entries. Now I'm afraid that Android version of the KKLD will just clear out all those references with another update... 残念だね。

That's so weird. I ordered the KLC dictionary from Amazon last August (it was on sale for $14!) and after three months of "there's been a delay" emails, I reached out to the publisher, and after silence, reached out to Conning. He was very nice, saying he thought it was just a temporary distribution delay, and offered to send me a copy he had bought for a friend. Then the publisher responded separately saying the book was unavailable and they were working to resolve the issue in a few months. Neither said, and I never considered, there was a legal dispute between them. I ended up canceling the order and getting it from B&N for MSRP.