Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Glad To Be An American

On April 23, 2009, a federal district court in the southern Russian province of Dagestan issued an unprecedented ruling, ordering a journalist of a local newspaper to pay compensation in an amount equal to US$1,000 to a writer who did not like a review of his book published in the newspaper.

Hat tip Jackie Powers.

1 comment:

Cheryl Anne Gardner said...

I love this part of the article the best though:

"Observers have commented that this judgment creates a very dangerous precedent, opening the way for lawsuits based on subjective opinion. Some have even suggested that if a book reviewer can be sued, a reader who did not like a book can sue the author for making a bad quality product."

Well, if bad grammar and sloppy writing could get you sued, self-publishing as an industry would soon be visiting bancruptcy court. Not to mention we would never have books like American Psycho or Naked Lunch or ... we'd have nothing. It wouldn't take long before the book burning would start again on a broad scale.

So shame on that author and shame on the judges for allowing even a nickle of restitution.