In retrospect, I think the title of this thread is an exaggeration. A
regrettable overstatement. Swartz is not actually running an
extortion racket. What he does is to use the legal system to bully,
intimidate and silence people who disagree with him or criticize his
work. I know he does this because he tried to do it to me. I do not
recall the content of his letters, because I tore them up and threw
them away immediately. Then I called Gene and yelled and carried on,
something I seldom do. (Poor Gene! He was the virtual Rabbi of cold
fusion, burdened by everyone's grief and complaints, always trying to
make peace.)
The letter was something to the effect of "cease and desist or you
will be sued" etc. You can see a similar threat in the archives here,
when he went nuts after I uploaded the abstract from his paper. There
is no doubt in my mind he was trying to intimidate me.
Swartz has been involved in lawsuit after lawsuit fighting with the
government, and evidently with his critics as well. Gene warned me
that Swartz will go on and on, with legal motions and demands, until
his critics are worn out and agree to shut up. One of his victims
called me and said it isn't worth it; he'll keep coming at you time
after time with legal motions and threats of lawsuits, on and on,
just leave him alone. I was told that some of these people finally
settled with some sort of agreement and I think they mentioned a
payment to cover legal expenses but I do not know how much. The
agreement precluded them telling me who they were or what the issues were.
This happened soon after Gene and I were pestered by another
scientist, named Santilli, with lawsuits and challenges that cost
tens of thousands of dollars to defend against. Gene had to go to
court several times. It was a nightmare for a while. Santilli forced
Gene to spend thousands of dollars at a time when Gene was broke and
in serious trouble. The court finally threw the case out. After that
experience you can see why he wanted me to keep quiet and not trigger
the same kind of nonsense from Swartz. Plus, he felt that Swartz was
doing important work, and we should support him as much as possible
and not make more trouble for him or with him. I cannot judge the
quality of his work.
Calling this "extortion" is too much. His actions were not criminal.
They were unethical, unseemly and infuriating, but not illegal. After
all, anyone is free to file a lawsuit. I don't think he actually
filed one against me, he just threatened to. Which -- let's face it
-- is like waving the proverbial red flag at a bull. A dumb thing for
him to do!
It was a long time ago, and it was upsetting, and I prefer not to
think about upsetting memories. If I were to dwell on all the nasty
things people have said to me in the cold fusion business, I would be
miserable. I am NOT miserable. I am happy as a clam, and I intend to
stay that way.
Anyway, even though it was years ago, I am glad I discussed this
nonsense here because otherwise these weird exchanges between us will
make the readers here think I have lost my mind. You must have been
thinking: Why would Jed make such an issue about copying a paper from
one web page to another?!? What difference does it make? And then
there was this exchange, when I wrote:
"If I see you have erased them from your site I will erase them from
LENR-CANR faster than you can say knife, so don't try that cute
little trick either."
That sounds crazy until you know the backstory. As you have seen
here, Swartz accuses me of secretly changing text and editing papers
without permission, so I must insist that he keep an authorized copy
of any paper on his web site to prove that my copy is verbatim.
Needless to say, Swartz and I have been through all these arguments
by private e-mail time after time. Many other people have seen
copies. I made sure of that. He knows exactly why I insist that he
upload first to his web page and leave the copy there. And I know for
darn sure he intends to take it down and then accuse me of "stealing"
or "editing."
This is all stuff and nonsense, but as Gene found with Santilli, it
can become expensive nonsense.
- Jed
