The link takes you to a more full documentation of the problem, but the essence of the issue is this:
A Dr. Karin N. Calvo-Goller wrote a book on law. A Professor Thomas Weigend has written an unflattering book review of it. Galvo-Coller decided she didn’t like the review, and demanded that it be removed from the internet. Naturally, the editor of the publication which carried the review did not want to do so, considering the review to be an acceptable criticism. And now the Prof. and the journal are being sued for libel.
Regardless of whether the suit is successful, the fact that the French court system has decided to try this frivolous suit imposes an unfair burden on the journal, because of the lawyer’s fees they must incur to fight this suit. And it will produce a chilling effect on publishers of book reviews in general, who now know that a negative review can be quite expensive.
And because scholarship is based on the free exchange of ideas, including criticism, this suit is an attack on scholarship in general.
uh oh . . . this isn’t good
On the celebrated blog of Jim West, I recently discovered the following.
The link takes you to a more full documentation of the problem, but the essence of the issue is this:
A Dr. Karin N. Calvo-Goller wrote a book on law. A Professor Thomas Weigend has written an unflattering book review of it. Galvo-Coller decided she didn’t like the review, and demanded that it be removed from the internet. Naturally, the editor of the publication which carried the review did not want to do so, considering the review to be an acceptable criticism. And now the Prof. and the journal are being sued for libel.
Regardless of whether the suit is successful, the fact that the French court system has decided to try this frivolous suit imposes an unfair burden on the journal, because of the lawyer’s fees they must incur to fight this suit. And it will produce a chilling effect on publishers of book reviews in general, who now know that a negative review can be quite expensive.
And because scholarship is based on the free exchange of ideas, including criticism, this suit is an attack on scholarship in general.
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