Friday, June 01, 2007

Reed-Elservier decide to stop being evil.

Wow, my faith in humanity is in a little way restored today; Reed-Elsevier have announced that they are going to stop running the DSEi and other arms fairs.

In a statement, they announced:
"it has become increasingly clear that growing numbers of important customers and authors have very real concerns about our involvement in the defence exhibitions business.

"We have listened closely to these concerns and this has led us to conclude that the defence shows are no longer compatible with Reed Elsevier's position as a leading publisher of scientific, medical, legal and business content."

Which appears to be a victory for those with any sense. Woot! I wish this sort of thing happened more often.

5 comments:

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

Made me pretty damn happy too. Now I can stop boycotting all things Elsevier.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like they're more concerned with the bad PR. Not sure they themselves have yet considered the moral aspect.

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

They may never figure out the moral aspect; some people just can't see it. If bad PR was what caused the change, that's fine with me. They'll at least stop helping sell weapons.

Anonymous said...

Fact is that the corporations will always only be affected by bad PR and share holder pressure (as appears to have been the case here).

It's not noramlly so blindingly farcical a situation as this though is it?