Blogger better be a billionaire, says 'open access' publisher lawsuit Blogger Jeffrey Beall, who tries to separate the wheat from the chaff in the world of academic publishing, is being threatened with a billion-dollar lawsuit from OMICS Publishing Group in India. According to this report from The Chronicle of Higher Education, at issue is Beall's list identifying his assessment of the worth of …
You've broken the law in another country you've never been to and now will be sued in said country for a billion dollars.
Unless said country was America and you lived in a lickspittle country (like Australia) who would sell you out in a heartbeat, it doesn't rate as much of a threat.
I pretty sure the blogger could live without going to India with it's wandering rapists, Islamic crazies and Bombay belly...
Totally missed the whole point....
Who cares if you break the laws of another country you've never been to and have no intention of going to
By the way since India is such a wonderful place to visit here's the Australian governments current status on travelling to India
"We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in India at this time because of the risk of terrorism, civil unrest, crime and vehicle accidents. "
But I'm just a xenophobe for pointing this out...
80% of the population are Hindu's and only 13% are Muslim.
Rapes per 100,000 people (2010):
India: 1.8
To be fair, that's reported rapes.
But getting back to the point...
The guy getting sued, if he were in America, he would be protected under his first amendment rights to free speech as long as his speech doesn't run afoul of libel or hate speech.
The lawsuit is bogus and in the US would be considered a SLAPP suit.
Lets look at the Australian Government warnings again for India
http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/India
Wandering Rapists
"Due to the risk of harassment and assault, women should take particular care in all parts of India and exercise caution even if they are travelling in a group. See under Crime for more information. "
Islamic Crazies
"A number of terrorist attacks in India have resulted in significant casualties. For example, in 2008, over 170 people were killed and more than 300 were injured in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks targeting places frequented by Westerners in Mumbai. Australians were among the casualties. More recent attacks causing significant casualties have occurred in Varanasi in December 2010, Mumbai in July 2011, New Delhi in September 2011 and Hyderabad in February 2013. "
Bombay Belly
"There is a high incidence of food-borne, water-borne and other infectious diseases in India. Before you travel, you should consult your doctor or travel clinic about disease outbreaks, preventative measures, immunisations and vaccinations. See the Health section for more information. "
Yes lets not let facts get in the way of being a total prick...
All this wasted space, replying to a posting that was not even relevant to the article.
But look at the number of adv. clicks that upvoted an irrelevant post! Perhaps TheRegister should consider a new content area for popular insults, to divert the commentators who aren't actually intererested in the tech news content.
When it's no longer enough for the parasitic academic publishing industry to leach off the work of researchers, universities, and tax payers, to whit, society at large; when it's not enough that the refereeing, editing, writing are donated, and the same institutions generating the bulk of the content pay to buy their own work back; when it's no longer sufficient that this content that supposedly furthers human knowledge is hidden behind paywalls and made inaccessible to the vast majority of humanity; the final opportunity to piss on society presents itself: beating any individual who dares object with billion dollar lawsuits.
Good job A-holes. Makes me glad I left academia.
(especially with the United States) often have clauses that attempt to criminalise things like copyright violation, or allow foreign corporations to sue governments if legislation they enact results in a decline in profits. A notable example is tobacco packaging laws introduced in Australia, which would probably not have been possible had the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (currently under negotiation) been in force.
To see other people sue those who review them. What's that? You think the new green lantern movie failed to meet expectations and you should avoid watching it to save your eyes? Only 2 stars? Fine we're suing you for 1 million dollars. That's what you get for reviewing our movie badly.
What? CoD Ghosts only got 8.5/10 on your site? Blasphemy! What do you mean it's teh same as the last game it's totally different. WE'LL SEE YOU IN COURT!
Man, think of the number of sony and xbox fanboys who'll wind up getting sued for saying the competition is shit.
AFAIK where I pay to have my work published that's called vanity publishing.
When they pay to publish my work that's called being an author (part time or otherwise).
I've never heard of this OMICS group but they'll need pretty deep pockets to pursue an author in another country. My instinct is they know once people start digging their facade will dissolve like a mud track after heavy rain.
"First, if OMICS gets a civil judgment against him from India, they won't be able to enforce it here. The SPEECH Act prohibits any federal or state court in the United States from recognizing or enforcing a foreign judgment for defamation unless (1) the judgment creditor can prove that the foreign court offers equivalent protections for free speech as the defendant would have enjoyed in United States courts under the First Amendment, or (2) the judgment creditor can prove he or she would have prevailed even under the stricter standards in the United States.
Second, if OMICS seeks criminal charges against Mr. Beall in India, they won't be able to extradite him there. Like most extradition treaties, the treaty between the United States and India requires dual criminality — that is, that the offense is a crime in both countries. Hurting fee-fees isn't a crime in the United States. Moreover, under these circumstances, the chance that the U.S. Departments of State or Justice would cooperate with extradition requests is effectively zero."
Read more: http://www.popehat.com/2013/05/15/omics-publishing-group-makes-a-billion-dollar-threat/
Everyone outside the Ivory Tower is laughing and saying WTF but in Academia it's all perfectly reasonable. There can be value to having some insulation from market forces but allowing a culture to do so for generations unchecked allows from some crazy sh_t. The only good thing about the budget cuts is the ivory tower types get to understand the market can affect them as well.
Read anything about this company and it is obvious how absurd this suit is. Are they not aware of how ridiculous they are shown to be? I will allow for the moment that they know their suit is meaningless so then what is they are trying to achieve with this ? Some form of notoriety ? Any publicity is better than none ?
It baffles me.
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