Holford Watch: Patrick Holford, nutritionism and bad science

We’ve blogged before about ‘Professor Dr’ Joseph Chikelue Obi’s rather silly legal threats against the Quackometer’s hosting company Netcetera. Amazingly, Netcetera have taken these claims seriously - and now taken down the Quackometer as a results. The blog should be up again soon - with Netcetera’s cowardice having hasn’t the decision to move it to a host with some guts - but Netcetera have behaved horrendously here. It sounds as if they are acknowledging their willingness to take down any site they host, following any legal threat: they just “do not wish to be in a position where we could be taken to court, and incur the loss of time and expense that would involve.”

As one of a number of people who have been driven to take sanctuary with Positive Internet, Andy Lewis says:

Exerting pressure on Obi is futile. He is not the story. The story is about ISPs, web hosts and their duty to their clients.

Web Hosting for blogs like mine is not a lucrative business. It is a commodity. Little profit and little incentive for hosts to keep business or do anything rather different. Netcetera took 10 quid off me a month and I ran about half a dozen web sites from them. The profit for hosts is elsewhere - corporate, services etc. But this leaves simple punters like me very vulnerable. The law needs examining. Would WHSMiths be liable if a newspaper printed something libelous. Would a library? Or are they just conduits? Should they inspect every page on their sites? The government appears to think that is reasonable.

Personally, I think we should all contact Netcetera - and threaten to sue for one million dollars a day (muhahahaha) for the loss of the Quackometer blog. I is off to call mah lawyurrz.

Update: Zdnet is carrying the story: If you fancy running a controversial website.

Quackometer is no more. Its web hosting company, Netcetera, has thrown it off. Has Andy Lewis, aka Le Canard Noir, proprietor of the Quackometer, committed some terrible sin, some libel, slander or other inappropriate act?

Not as far as I can see.

Quite. In fact, Netcetera might take a look at Metal Vortex if they are ever in search of a new logo.
Further updated: The Register now has the story: Shamed ‘alternative medicine’ quack silences web critic. A rattling good read with a nice summary, “Jelly spine cure urgently needed by ISP”.
Update 21 Feb: the Quackometer blog is back online although other features may take a little longer.
Update 26.2.2007: worth an update all to itself, read the LOLQuacks modern-day fairy tale about Professor Dr Obi.

Related reading

We have trackbacked most of the related posts, however, here are the links for easier browsing (lifted from shpalman of What the hell is this?)..

• What the hell is this?
• Gimpy
• jdc325
• Away from the bench
• Thinking is Dangerous
• Orac from Respectful Insolence
• JQH
• Bad Chemist
• Apathy Sketchpad
• 20__
• Hawk/Handsaw
• Dr. Aust
• Procrastor
• The Bronze Blog
• Mythusmage Opines and Pontificates
• A day at the pharmacy
• Blue Collar Scientist
• ZDNet
• Google Search
• Google Blog Search
• badscience.net thread
• JREF thread
• White Coat Underground
• Bob O’Hara
• Thoughts in a haystack
• Flammable Flower
• The Register

Chemobrain

• SL Universe forums
• Archaeporn
• Metal Vortex
• I Speak of Dreams
• The Flax
• Paul Hutch
• A canna’ change the laws of physics

li>Bloggerheads

• Lay Scientist