Slashdot Mirror
Publisher Sues University Librarian Over His Personal Blog Posts
McGruber writes "The Chronicle of Higher Education has the news that Herbert Richardson, founder of Edwin Mellen Press is suing McMaster University and University Librarian Dale Askey for $3 Million over Mr. Askey's posts on a personal blog. In 2010 Mr. Askey wrote a blog post about Edwin Mellen Press on his personal Web site, Bibliobrary. Mr. Askey referred to the publisher as 'dubious' and said its books were often works of 'second-class scholarship.' For a few months afterward, several people chimed in in the blog's comments section, some agreeing with Mr. Askey, others arguing in support of the publisher. In a February 11 statement, the McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA) stated that The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) 'and the MUFA Executive agree that this case represents a serious threat to the freedom of academic librarians (pdf) to voice their professional judgement and to academic freedom more generally.'"
I think we have laws against these strategic lawsuits against public participation.
... that if also this librarian had been an Orangutan Mr Richardson would have thought twice about suing.
Not only does this attempt to suppress free speech by means of the court, but it also treats the man like a serf. They sue the university (i.e. the employer or, in their view, the master) knowing that even if their suit isn't successful new policies will arise limiting employees' ability to have personal websites. The Servile State is as relevant as ever.
Until it gets subpoena'd for IP addresses.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
I do not know much about defamation law in other countries, but in the US there would be no valid case. The statements are derogatory, but are opinions and not facts. Only provably false statements of fact can give rise to an action for defamation in the United States. Of course anyone can always try to sue for anything, but the plaintiff here would lose quickly and probably face a judgment for costs and fees for filing a case unsupported by law (Rule 11).
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
Barbra Streisand published her memoir there, Don't Take Pictures Of My House.
Yeah, you know, I get really sick and tired of hearing all the horseshit Canadian Slashdot users ...
Uh huh. Wait for the judge's ruling. I doubt this's going to get much past the filing stage, and our courts do award court costs and legal fees paid by the loser. We also know the meaning of barratry:
4: the offense of vexatiously persisting in inciting lawsuits and quarrels
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
I taped a note on my locker saying "Jenny Arbuckle is a fatty".
She didn't sue, but she said 'no' when I asked her to be my prom date.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
The prior poster was referring to the fictional Librarian of the Unseen University in Ankh Mor-pork on the Discworld in novels written by Terry Pratchett. People don't criticize him as he tends to rip off their arms and or head.
Why is the business named after a person whose identity isn't even known to Google, and not the name of the founder or some other relevant thing or person?
I work for a small academic publisher and I've seen the Edwin Mellen press at some academic conventions. Nice people, but they totally come across as carnival hucksters. They get their business knowing full well how important "publish or perish" is in academia. Their reps will literally ask every single person who walks by in the exhibit hall: "Do you want to get published?" (including me, on multiple occasions, wearing my vendor badge!) They basically make their money from minimal production values (look at their covers or insides of their books to see what I mean), small print runs, and very high prices. They sell a limited number of books to libraries, to the author, and maybe a handful elsewhere, and then they're done. They claim to be subsidy-free (i.e., not a vanity press) but I don't know if this is true or not.
The publisher's problem is that this isn't some nut-job that can just be dismissed out of hand. Dale Askey appears to have the qualifications to know exactly what he's talking about here so they have to try and shut him up. But suing McMaster University over the personal blog of one of their employees personal blog opinions is way beyond reasonable -- although that's probably either were the money is, or that they hope to punish Mr. Askey by getting the university to fire him as him being too much trouble to keep onboard.
Under all circumstances the publisher is wrong here. The proper course of action would have been for them to line up equally (apparently) qualified academicians on their side of the argument and let the book-buying institutions decide for themselves. It would seem that both sides of the argument were already being hashed out on the blog, and now arrives The Streisand Effect in spades!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The prior poster was referring to the fictional Librarian of the Unseen University in Ankh Mor-pork on the Discworld in novels written by Terry Pratchett. People don't criticize him as he tends to rip off their arms and or head.
Sounds like Wookie problem resolution practices.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
For instance, the publisher could start a blog in which they call the librarian "Mr. Poopy Pants".
That is essentially the equivalent of what he did to them.
If I think that some publisher's output is poor, that is my opinion. It is not libel. You can't sue people for having standards (even completely vague ones that change daily) and for claiming that some things don't measure up to those standard (in no objective way).
Libel would be if I claim that, say, the publisher cheated someone out of ten thousand dollars, when in fact that is false.
Edwin Mellen Press is dubious and its books are often works of second-class scholarship.
Has anyone heard this?
Edwin Mellen Press is dubious and its books are often works of second-class scholarship.
It appears that a lot of the Internet are talking about it right now.
Edwin Mellen Press is dubious and its books are often works of second-class scholarship.
Is it true?
The proper course of action would have been for them to line up equally (apparently) qualified academicians on their side of the argument and let the book-buying institutions decide for themselves. It would seem that both sides of the argument were already being hashed out on the blog, and now arrives The Streisand Effect in spades!
It would appear that this company's reputation is already well pretty. well established
The nicest thing I have seen so far are the comments that say it is just one step above a vanity press.
But I forgot about how touchy the monk....orangutan can be. ;-)
Does FIRE have a counterpart in Canada?
Most textbooks are second, third or ass wipe class resources. Out of the 14+ textbooks I have, and out of the 100 I've read, maybe 2 of them are worth any money and out of those two, only the embedded software textbook is worth over $20. Textbooks are by far the worst way to learn / educate a student! Instead of suing the blogger maybe textbook publishers should sit back and finally ask "How do make a learning resource that works!", One thing is for sure it's not following the current methods.
You're an idiot if you think the subject matter of a book is what determines its quality.
Ours is very like the US's definition, with the same prohibitions on extreme misuse, such as inciting a riot or shouting fire in a crowded theatre. We differ only on edge cases, like inciting lesser crimes. We're in complete agreement on the librarian's rigfht to state an opinion or cite a fact.
davecb@spamcop.net
As in, when I need to get published, I'll pay for a *real* vanity press rather than these "non-subsidized" publishers. You get what you pay for!
So, everyone can express their honest, unvarnished opinion about ethnicity, religion, and homosexuality in Canada, right?
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
The US is pretty unique in that regard. In many other places, even demonstrably true statements can be libelous. And while in the US, these are merely civil matters, in other nations, libel, defamation, and slander are often criminal matters.
Yup, but the librarian in question didn't stick to safe subjects like race, religion or colour (:-))
--dave
[In case people haven't been following Canadian politics, there's a real debate ongoing in Canada about when merely racist/sexist/religious language turns into inciting attacks on people who are the wrong race, colour or religion. See "Ezra Levant" on Wikipedia if you want an activist and libertarian position on the debate]
davecb@spamcop.net
The publisher is upset that someone called them Scientologists. Well, they're absolutely not Scientologists. They're Moonies. Yes, really.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Librarians as a group tend to have pretty strong feelings about this sort of thing. If this publisher thought the blog post of one librarian might turn other librarians against them, they haven't seen anything like what this lawsuit will do.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
So just out of curiosity I went to their website. On a poorly presented front page they advertise themselves not to potentials readers (i.e. customers) but to academics desparate to get a book "out there" for career purposes. One of their selling points is "Our books qualify for tenure promotion," for example. Reputable publishing houses do not have to advertise in that manner to potentials authors because their reputation means that they have many more inquiries from new authors than they could possibly accept. Seems like a pretty sketchy organisation.
This also involves free speech. I believe the university and the librarian should counter sue, claiming the publisher is trying to suppress their free speech rights. They should ask for millions of dollars in damages and Billions in punitave damage.
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
I would think if were a Head Liberarian, that simply avoiding Edwin Mellen Press products, would avoid imperiling my institution. My libarians wouldn't be able to critique Edwin Mellen Press, if they didn't have any.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
We have anti-hate speech laws. You can't incite violence against an "identifiable group". So you can say "I don't like X". You can't say "we should kill all the X."
Anarchists never rule
So it would be OK to start railing against Anonymous?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Like actual violence only? Or are stories like this false? Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with religious conservatives on this issue. But Canada's reputation is of being a country where one can be civilly liable for expressing politically incorrect opinions, and if so, that's pretty fucking far from free speech.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
I love how everything posted on that site has no external links to stories and only names one person.
IANAL, however...
I imagine it going something like this:
"Your honour, we move for dismissal due to lack of jurisdiction."
From TFA:
Judge: "Okay, published in USA by an American; I have no jurisdiction."
Hopefully he adds, "I award costs to defendants."
Then, all the librarians that keep this publisher solvent by buying their books suddenly, in these days of cost cutting measures, can no longer justify the purchases.
Yeah, that would be one book not purchased and $120 saved for starters.
there is no SLAPP law currently on the books in either Canadian law or Ontario law.
But the publisher needs to be careful. If they loose, they have to pay the legal fees of the blog owner and the university.
The simple defence is to show the comments are true. Doesn't seem to be to hard.
FUCK YOU. As an academic, I think I can speak for myself and at least a few others: FUCK YOU and the craptastic publishing company you rode in on. Douchebag.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Dale Askey appears to have the qualifications to know exactly what he's talking about here so they have to try and shut him up.
They have been given top notch advise for free, why do they "have" to interpret that as a existential threat? - Parinoia?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
In Canada we have a loser pays system. Helps prevents nonsense lawsuits if the instigator foots the bill for his and his opponent's bills.
The prior poster was referring to the fictional Librarian of the Unseen University in Ankh Mor-pork on the Discworld in novels written by Terry Pratchett. People don't criticize him as he tends to rip off their arms and or head.
And for the love of the gods, don't use the "m" word....Nice monkey....Oh S**t!
OOK!
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Remember folks: Anyone can sue anyone, over just about anything.
That - coupled with a grossly Byzantine case-law system that seems to directly-reward $$ paid to platoons of attorneys - has really left us a broken system.
The problem is one of a level playing field, in both directions.
On the one hand, we want our legal system to be accessible to anyone; this allows the impoverished parents of the kid that was crippled by defective playground equipment to sue Giant Mega Playground Corp despite their sub-poverty income.
On the other hand, we don't want our legal system to entertain nuisance or frivolous lawsuits from parents of the kid that ate sand to be able to sue the sandbox maker and the gravel pit that made the sand.
How do we reconcile these two contrary positions?
The "loser pays for the trial" is good on the face of it, the problem is that the initial 'cost to enter the game' is so high
Here's my solution: use all the bloody lawyers. We have zillions.
1) REQUIRE any licensed attorney to do X hours of arbitration work per month as a condition of their license. This would be at whatever rate public defenders are paid.
2) any civil suit MUST pass through an arbitrator before being filed in court. This is non-binding arbitration; but the arbitrator will essentially counsel the parties as to their opinion of the case - find for the plaintiff, find for the defendant, or inconclusive*. (* there HAS to be this option, as some cases really ARE complicated and subtle). This arbitration is NO LAWYERS FOR THE PLAINTIFF OR DEFENSE. Just two people, stating their cases. This finding is given to the judge if the case goes to trial. (The point of this is to prompt settlement or abandonment of the suit.)
3) If the suit goes to trial:
a) if it's found to be in agreement with the arbitrator, loser pays the full costs of trial PLUS a punitive amount set by the judge.
b) if it's found to be opposite the arbitrator's ruling, the judge sets the burden of the court costs; more importantly (for the system), an 'overruled' arbitrator is given a 'point'. 3 points, they lose their license and must re-certify. (Whether there's an accumulation system, where 'correct' arbitrators can delete points with successful rulings, that's a nuance that may have some value too.)
c) if the ruling was inconclusive, the judge of the case then can rule if the arbitrator was 'right' or not, and thus whether the arbitrator accumulates a 'point'.
The points are:
- using our overabundance of lawyers constructively in their role as 'officers of the court' to productively to 'filter' the caseload presented to our courts
- importantly, to hold the lawyers accountable for their findings, so they both take it seriously, and
- provide people involved in a suit a chance to speak their piece AND feel they are getting a fair evaluation of their case
- minimize the lawerly impact on the front-end of a case.
-Styopa
Doesn't matter who is right or who is wrong... what matters is which lawyers can sway the judge/jury in their client's favor...
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
Institutions of higher learning across country should issue a joint statement banning that publisher's books from being sold in on-campus bookstores (new or used) or being required material in any course.
They're against academic freedom, they can kiss academic support goodbye, right?
It's not like there aren't other publishers.
Free speech doesn't include physically trying to stop people from entering a clinic. Refusing to do you job due to religious belief is also not freedom of speech.
Anarchists never rule
Canada did nothing. The police refused to file charges, and the Islam society dropped their case.
Anarchists never rule
And the moment that a request came in from a library user for a book published by $PUBLISHER$ ... your attempt at escaping controversy fails.
Probably better to fight this one.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
True, but while there is no guarantee you will not sponatiously combust, that doesn't mean you should bathe in gasoline.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds