chilling: pz myers sued for negative review

scientific american reports that pharyngula blogger pz myers is being sued for posting a negative review of lifecode by stuart pivar. professor myers, a biologist at the university of minnesota-morris, posted this response to scientific american:

Huh. I'd heard some noise from Pivar threatening to sue, but this is the first I've heard of any formal action being taken. Since I'm a defendant (one who hasn't been notified of his status!) I suppose I should just shut up at this point and let justice run its course.

Since I'm a blogger, though, I can't completely shut up. I will just say that this is Pivar's attempt to squash a negative review of his book, which I posted here. Nothing in the review was motivated by personal malice, and I actually am inclined to favor structuralist arguments in evolution ... but I'm afraid my honest assessment of Pivar's work is that it does not support his conclusions. I still stand by my review, and now I'm a bit disturbed that someone would think criticism of a scientific hypothesis must be defended by silencing its critics.

it turns out that mr. pivar is a businessperson rather than an academic and that he appears to be a particularly litigious businessperson. still, i'm a bit concerned that a suit against an online book reviewer would even be filed, especially since mr. pivar might be considered a "public figure" in the times v. sullivan sense of that phrase. i'd never pull any punches in, say, the ajs book review i'm preparing, but i'd imagine that the threat of lawsuits would have a general chilling effect on free expression, in science as in politics.