Legal bullying

From Eureka

Legal bullying includes any attempts by publishers to unfairly pursue or threaten legal action to fight against open access, e.g. by disclosure of their high prices.

Gordon and Breach v. the AIP and APS

A classic example of legal bullying is the lawsuit launched by Gordon and Breach against the American Institute of Physics and American Physical Society^[1] for publishing information about journal prices that showed Gordon and Breach journals to be expensive^[2][3][4]. They lost that suit on August 28, 1997^[5].

CRC v. Eric Weisstein

Eric Weisstein was sued by his publisher, CRC, for keeping his MathWorld website online after publishing it in book form. Since he had indeed given them full rights to MathWorld, this may be questionable as a case of "legal bullying". However, the story of the case makes for cautionary reading.^[6]

References

1. ↑ Gordon and Breach v. AIP and APS
2. ↑ Henry H. Barschall The costs of physics journals
3. ↑ Henry H. Barschall, The cost-effectiveness of physics journals
4. ↑ Henry H. Barschall and A. R. Arrington, Cost of physics journals: a survey
5. ↑ AIP and APS Prevail In Suit By Gordon & Breach
6. ↑ http://mathworld.wolfram.com/about/erics_commentary.html