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Zotero Lawsuit Dismissed

Posted by kdawson on from the ending-of-note dept.

peretzpup writes "The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Thomson Reuters's lawsuit against George Mason University has been dismissed. Last fall the news organization had sued GMU's Center for History and New Media over supposed violations of the EndNote licensing agreement by the Zotero project, hosted at the university. Zotero, a Firefox plug-in designed to help scholars store and organize their online research, has seen millions of downloads. Zotero project co-director Sean Takats's announcement is pretty heartwarming. No comment as yet from Thomson Reuters."

39 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Hurrah! by Canazza · · Score: 4, Informative

    And rightly so. I doubt they actually made any money from the plug in, so $10m would have utterly crippled both the university and the students therein.

    --
    It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
    1. Re:Hurrah! by qortra · · Score: 3, Informative

      I agree, but don't overstate it - they're a large, public university with a 9 figure endowment. Even if the case had ended with a $10M judgement, I don't think that would have "crippled" them.

    2. Re:Hurrah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      they're a large, public university with a 9 figure endowment.

      Citation needed.

    3. Re:Hurrah! by FlyingBishop · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, given the state of the economy, the large-endowment schools are hurting the most, because suddenly their primary source of income is in fact bleeding money.

    4. Re:Hurrah! by JoeRandomHacker · · Score: 5, Funny

      There is something ironic about citing Wikipedia in response to a [citation needed].

    5. Re:Hurrah! by qortra · · Score: 1

      True enough. The endowment was only meant to demonstrate that their cash-on-hand dwarfs the $10m figure that the OP mentioned. My point was that a $10m fee could not cripple the university by itself (though I acknowledge that it could have been "the straw that broke the camel's back").

    6. Re:Hurrah! by z4ckpete · · Score: 1, Funny

      Endowment: $54,080,984

      Pretty sure that's 8 figures...

    7. Re:Hurrah! by FlyingBishop · · Score: 5, Informative

      Also the AC above was right:

      http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/items/3749

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University

      GMU's endowment is only $54,955,028. Wikipedia had an extra 1 on the front for some reason (I fixed it.)

      At the same time, I got the corrected figure from the reference cited on Wikipedia, so it doesn't really discredit wikipedia, so much as prove you need to follow your sources, whatever you're reading.

      http://eagle.gmu.edu/gazette/articles/9750
      This article also puts the endowment as just reaching 50 million a few years ago.

    8. Re:Hurrah! by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's just sad. No one knows what a primary source is anymore.

      Here is a good citation.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    9. Re:Hurrah! by qortra · · Score: 1

      Point taken, thanks for correcting that.

    10. Re:Hurrah! by iluvcapra · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The precedent would have been sufficient to cripple any number of open source developers...

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
  2. TR shot themselfs in the foot with this lawsuit by pesho · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Taking page of RIAA playbook TR sued their own clients - academics using EndNote. The silly part is that many of the citation style files the lawsuit was about are actually created by Endnote users.

    To make their court case stronger they put legal language on their website that prohibited sharing of style files and reference libraries. This naturally raised questions from the endnote users, because sharing these files is essential part of using the product. The support staff on their user forums was put in an awkward position of explaining that that files can in fact be shared, while the language on their own web site was stating the opposite. Now it seems they have corrected the license statement to allow such sharing.

    Nice PR, TR;)

    1. Re:TR shot themselfs in the foot with this lawsuit by qortra · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Absolutely, and just like the RIAA, they are now out not only the lawyer costs and the goodwill of the public, but also a customer. From the Chronicle article:

      George Mason University said in November it had not renewed a site license for EndNote

      This is what happens when you fsck a client.

    2. Re:TR shot themselfs in the foot with this lawsuit by jank1887 · · Score: 3, Funny

      but at least they won't have any corrupt superblocks.

    3. Re:TR shot themselfs in the foot with this lawsuit by guisar · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My brother is a digital media specialist (aka Librarian 2.0) for a major university and believe me Endnote has not just lost one client. Everyone on the inside is wicked pissed about their lawsuit, their outrageous fees and shitty service. They should not be surprised when Universities abandon them in droves just to avoid becoming the next target of this shitty company. Let's hope Blackboard is the next casualty since they suck even harder. (aka almost as much and in the same "make a simple task slow and complicated" way as this comment system on Slashdot)

    4. Re:TR shot themselfs in the foot with this lawsuit by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      Unless they were blocks that were exiled from Krypton to the Phantom Zone.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    5. Re:TR shot themselfs in the foot with this lawsuit by yes+it+is · · Score: 1

      +1

  3. Sharing ENS Styles by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now it seems they have corrected the license statement to allow such sharing.

    Kind of. Their terms of use state:

    EndNote includes customization options that licensed individual and institutional customers can use to create new and modify existing EndNote style (.ens), filter (.enf), and connection (.enz) files for their personal use and to share with other licensed EndNote users for use only in conjunction with EndNote.

    (emphasis mine). In other words, they claim that you can't use the files that you create using their software in third-party software, such as Zotero. This would be like saying you can't open an MS Word Document in OpenOffice.org Writer.

  4. Works fine for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm running Zotero 2.0b5 in Firefox 3.0.10 right now. What problems are you having?

  5. Victory by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is the sweet taste of victory for an excellent project. Thomson Education is notorious for charging exhorbitant amounts of money to students for textbooks. Their testing division is a borderline racket for the amount they charge for testing on testing software that still runs on Windows 2000 Professional and crashes mid way through the MC$E tests. I even was told that I couldn't get a refund or a makeup date because I was expected to be at a test center in the middle of snow storm in Pennsylvania. Never mind that two feet of snow fell. Any time Thomson Reuters gets its butt handed to it, I cheer.

    1. Re:Victory by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Their testing division is a borderline racket for the amount they charge for testing on testing software that still runs on Windows 2000 Professional and crashes mid way through the MC$E tests.

      Now that's funny.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  6. Re:Hmm by speed+of+lightx2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have zotero with 3.0.10 (as I'm sure many people have, it's the default Ubuntu version in 9.04) and Zotero works flawlessly. I've had issues in the past, when trying the Firefox3 beta, but it's been stable for many months now.

  7. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Both Zotero 1.0.10 and 2.0b5 have install.rdf manifests declaring compatibility up to Firefox 3.5. If you're getting that message, there's a problem with your Firefox profile.

  8. is it me by ionix5891 · · Score: 1

    or is zotero VERY buggy? and crashes :(

    yah yah i know, open source, fix it yourself :|

  9. Re:The simple answer. by jimbobborg · · Score: 1

    Maybe YOUR civilization did, but look at China, which is NOT a warm place. They've had a continuous civilization for several thousand years.

  10. Why was the suit even brought? by bzipitidoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Good that GMU won. Even better that the case was tossed. Yet celebrating this feels like celebrating that the bar was lowered an inch after it had crept up 10 inches.

    What gave Reuters the idea he had a case? Is he just another greedy control freak who knew very well he didn't really have a case but thought he could game the system to give him far too much? Our laws are so bad he really thought he had a chance? And did he think users would meekly submit to his control if his lawsuit succeeded? I expect he didn't think that far ahead. Or maybe the whole thing was a bluff and he hoped GMU would roll over without a fight? Or did he really believe he was in the right?

    --
    Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
  11. Re:The simple answer. by droptone · · Score: 1, Informative

    First of all, China has a variety of climates. The cradles of their civilization, places like Zhengzhou and Yangcheng, seem to have moderate climates (I can't easily find historical data, so the links are not as conclusive as they could be). They aren't warm places, but they certainly aren't cold either.

    --
    Every post I make begins with the assumption P=~P.
  12. Thomson Reuters is not just this guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Thomson Reuters is multi-million dollar company.

    1. Re:Thomson Reuters is not just this guy by bzipitidoo · · Score: 1

      That just makes their thinking even more incomprehensible. I would be less surprised if this was just some crank. But for a large corporation to mess up like that doesn't speak well of them. Maybe top management has too much control and no one has the power to rein them in when they get stupid, or maybe it's groupthink and a corporate culture that overemphasizes blind loyalty.

      --
      Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
    2. Re:Thomson Reuters is not just this guy by MarkvW · · Score: 1

      NO!! Reuters is a guy! He looks just like Edward G. Robinson! I saw him on TV the other day.

  13. Dismissed on what grounds? by mdmkolbe · · Score: 1

    Does anyone have a link to the actual decision or know on what ground the case was dismissed?

    Depending on the details this case could be a indicator of some sanity returning to copyright law or just a case that was won on ancillary technicalities.

  14. They tried to STOP the very people they ... by crovira · · Score: 1

    should have been encouraging.

    TR were stupidly engaging in trying to shut people down, instead of using an open source license solution to grow and extend their product AT NO COST TO THEMSELVES.

    The use of lawyers who are creatures who can act like O'Brien in 1984, instead of the use of innovation to add value, is entirely consistent with people who believe that authority comes from the power they can bring to bear instead of the authorship of the idea.

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  15. Zotero Donations by Noksagt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Trevor's blog also had this post:
    http://www.zotero.org/blog/help-zotero-by-donating-to-the-center-for-history-and-new-media/
    which says that all tax-deductible donations made in June will be matched twice-over. This seems like a good opportunity to congratulate the team for making it through their legal hurdles & to support the development of great free/open source software.

  16. With or without prejudice? by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Was the suit dismissed with prejudice or without? The difference is important. "With prejudice" means that the issue is settled and they can never bring it before any US court again. "Without prejudice" means that they can try again.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  17. The ironic thing by femtoguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The really ironic thing is that if it hadn't been for the law suit, I would not have found Zotero. I have been complaining for years about Endnote, but was unwilling to go LaTeX/BibTeX all of the way, and had been paying for endnote, and using Microsoft Word. With Zotero, I got completely changed over to OpenOffice on all platforms.

    So, Thanks for the law suit.

    1. Re:The ironic thing by Vertana · · Score: 1

      I hadn't heard of Zotero either, but I know a few people whose lives it will make just a little bit easier :D I, too, thank the lawsuit.

      --
      "The best way to accelerate a Macintosh is at 9.8m/sec^2" -Marcus Dolengo
  18. Die Endnote Die by bigbigbison · · Score: 1

    And I don't mean The Endnote The....

    Endnote is a horrible program. Unintuitive, no error messages when you do something wrong.

    It is just painful to use. Zotero isn't perfect but it is so much better than Endnote.

    --
    http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
  19. Re:The simple answer. by buswolley · · Score: 1

    "Zotero for world Peace." [Citation Needed]

    --

    A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

  20. Re:The simple answer. by GumphMaster · · Score: 1

    Finally found a use for Wolfram Alpha:
    http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Climate+of+Zhengzhou+china
    http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Climate+of+Yancheng+china

    --
    Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button