SpicyIP Tidbit: Retraction Watch posts restored

As hoped, Retraction Watch posts regarding Dr. Anil Potti have been restored. Retraction Watch is a website solely dedicated to publishing academic paper retractions in the scientific-medical research community. Dr. Anil Potti had nineteen retractions which were duly reported by Retraction Watch. We covered the incident about an Indian plagiarizing website [Newsbulet.in] reporting against Retraction Watch for copyright violations here. Retraction Watch received a DMCA takedown notice on account of apparently ten ‘copied’ posts. The issue evoked strong responses from free speech activists and the scientific fraternity alike.

While Retraction Watch sent a reply to the DMCA notices and awaited restoration of their original works, another website Nanopolitan has received takedown notices for posts on Dr. Anil Potti. Now, Nanopolitan has replied to the notice and is waiting for restoration of that post [Nanopolitan claims that the post only had links to blogs about Potti]. 

Further, earlier this week Dr. Anil Potti contacted Retraction Watch and expressed innocence regarding his suspected involvement in these malicious copyright violation claims. He also informed Retraction Watch about the termination of his association with an 'online reputation management agency’ a year ago, which was initiated in the first place by a “well-wisher”. He said that the person behind the DMCA takedown notices may be :
“ someone who has an agenda and just wants to keep my name in the limelight, or some “well wisher” who thinks he/she is helping me by doing this…”

While the "well-wisher" acting in support of Dr. Potti is untraceable, such incidents highlight the ease by which the DMCA procedure can be abused, which are increasingly on the rise.