Last refuge doesn’t last long

Around two weeks ago, Retraction Watch suffered a false Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice for their posts on Anil Potti retractions. As I pointed out in an earlier post, the DMCA was somewhat surreal. The DMCA has now been rescinded, because it was entirely false. The catalogue of Anil Potti retractions is once again open to all and whoever made the original false DMCA has only increased, rather than reduce awareness of Anil Potti’s retractions.
A lesson here, I think: attempts at censorship in science should be met with increased discussions, comments and postings, to prevent issues being buried or lost.
Hats off to Automattic for dealing with the DMCA smartly in all senses of the word: they only took down the relevant posts, rather than taking down the entire Retraction Watch blog and they worked fast to get the false DMCA rescinded.

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