From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2013 15:33:40 -0500

Chronicle of Higher Education -  3/4/13

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/edwin-mellen-press-drops-lawsuit-against-university-librarian/42647

Edwin Mellen Press Drops Lawsuit Against University Librarian
March 4, 2013, 3:03 pm
By Jake New

Edwin Mellen Press said on Monday that it would drop a lawsuit against
a university librarian whom it had sued for writing a blog post
critical of the publisher. Critics have called the lawsuit an attack
on academic freedom.

The press had sued Dale Askey, a librarian at McMaster University, in
Ontario, and the Canadian university in the Ontario Superior Court,
seeking more than $3-million in damages for the post, in which Mr.
Askey referred to the publisher as “dubious” and said its books were
often works of “second-class scholarship.”

In a separate action, the press’s founder, Herbert W. Richardson, sued
Mr. Askey for $1-million for personal remarks made in the blog’s
comment section. It is not clear whether that lawsuit will also be
dropped......

“The financial pressure of the social-media campaign and pressure on
authors is severe,” Edwin Mellen Press said in a news release issued
on Monday. “EMP is a small company. Therefore must choose to focus its
resources on its business and serving its authors.”

[SNIP]