Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 156 posts

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#31

Post by caminante »

dmix wrote: post #14
bdjeudug wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re intentionally returning unsigned contacts to employers hoping they don’t notice? Seeing how you’re first action in each of your new jobs is done in bad faith I think I see why you’ve had to fill out six of them…

You could easily get by by saying it was just a mix up and you emailed the wrong PDF. Not saying it's ethical though. I'm also not really sure which situations an employment contract would really hurt you in tech besides maybe some IP stuff. NDAs are usually separate.

I inherit non-countersigned contracts frequently.

IANAL,but they're still enforceable, especially in the grandparent's situation where the grandparent's work product was accepted and they were paid. There are realms of contract law where signature compliance is more prescribed like probate.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#32

Post by ghaff »

8organicbits wrote: post #10

> until recently the online tool who.is indicated that the [Polish arbitration court, Pan-Europejski-Sąd-Arbitrażowy] PESA website was set up by Villa Europa itself in September 2021 Quite alarming. Is it normal to charge speakers such high fees? I remember some conferences giving free admission to speakers as encouragement.

The norm at tech conferences is to waive conference fees. For certain types of speakers (industry analysts, headliners for keynotes, other people that conferences want that can't afford to pay their own way), it's normal to cover some expenses and pay them to a greater or lesser degree. I have never in decades literally paid to speak at a conference. (Sponsoring companies may of course have a sponsor package that includes some stage time for an employee among other benefits like booth space.)

But directly paying to be a speaker? Absolutely not normal.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#33

Post by peteradio »

jacquesm wrote: post #6
pvaldes wrote: post #4

[flagged]

Are you seriously suggesting that virologists would 'take revenge' on others by using their professional skills or do I read your comment in entirely the wrong way?

Isn't this the normal thing to do? As a physicist I might set up a large pendulum to knock over a foe or perhaps a frictionfull ramp with a uniform cylinder to flatten my foe.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#34

Post by ghaff »

Closi wrote: post #30
jacquesm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's normal to pay speakers or to at least accommodate their expenses. This was just a scam.

I don’t think this is quite right with all conferences - I’ve personally found it quite common for these event companies to give talks to “platinum” sponsors as an indirect way of charging for them. (Although this particular instance sounds like a scam)

Yeah, many conferences absolutely rely on company sponsorships to cover some or even most of their costs and many of those packages cover some sort of speaking slot among other things (booths, logos, swag bags, etc.). And some conferences have a lot of that sort of pay to play going on. But maybe because I'm used to it that seems different from a naked speaking fee situation.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#35

Post by beebmam »

amelius wrote: post #29
asnyder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still surprises me that tactics like these are legal. There shouldn't be a concept of fine print... The whole notion is ripe for abuse. Same with elder scams. Too many potential avenues for scams via contracts.

This is where dot-matrix printers shine: they destroy the fine print.

This is a delightful nerd joke that I have decided to steal

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#36

Post by jawns »

petesergeant wrote: post #13
baz00 wrote: post #2

Someone did this recently to me i.e. showed me something I'd signed which I didn't. Fortunately this lead to their demise as I am friends with their manager which was unknown by the party in question. Historically I tend to try something on with employment contracts too - I return an unsigned copy to the company. Only 1 out of 6 companies I worked for didn't just stick it in a filing cabinet and forget about it. Ulti…

> I tend to try something on with employment contracts too - I return an unsigned copy to the company. So you email it back without comment, which shows you received it and understood what it was, and then started work… I suspect that’s binding in many jurisdictions, and the lack of an actual signature is simply an inconvenience

What if they crossed out a few clauses and signed, and the employer never noticed. Are you saying that because they begin working for the company, that represents the company's tacit acceptance of the modifications to the contract?

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#37

Post by permo-w »

asnyder wrote: post #22
keltex wrote: post #19

Reminds me of a SPAM email we get quite frequently, the "World Company Register". The attached PDF reads, "To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form. Updating is free of charge. Only sign if you want to place an insertion." Then at the bottom in tiny type it says that you've agreed to a 3 year insertion at 995 Euro per year. I can see small businesses easily falling for this.

Still surprises me that tactics like these are legal. There shouldn't be a concept of fine print... The whole notion is ripe for abuse. Same with elder scams. Too many potential avenues for scams via contracts.

are they legal? ianal, but surely that kind of contract doesn't hold up legally

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#38

Post by readams »

keltex wrote: post #19

Reminds me of a SPAM email we get quite frequently, the "World Company Register". The attached PDF reads, "To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form. Updating is free of charge. Only sign if you want to place an insertion." Then at the bottom in tiny type it says that you've agreed to a 3 year insertion at 995 Euro per year. I can see small businesses easily falling for this.

If you register a trademark, you'll get multiple fake bills in the physical mail for hundreds of dollars to similarly record the trademark in various "registers." The fine print says it's not a bill but a solicitation, but of course it's just a scam in reality.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#39

Post by flangola7 »

asnyder wrote: post #22
keltex wrote: post #19

Reminds me of a SPAM email we get quite frequently, the "World Company Register". The attached PDF reads, "To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form. Updating is free of charge. Only sign if you want to place an insertion." Then at the bottom in tiny type it says that you've agreed to a 3 year insertion at 995 Euro per year. I can see small businesses easily falling for this.

Still surprises me that tactics like these are legal. There shouldn't be a concept of fine print... The whole notion is ripe for abuse. Same with elder scams. Too many potential avenues for scams via contracts.

These scams often aren't. They rely on a certain % of people to give in without a fight.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#40

Post by MichaelZuo »

ghaff wrote: post #18
Mandatum wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do. You just won’t pay for it. When you sign a mortgage or take out a loan and it’s all online, lenders will pay someone to come to your house, take a photo of you, verify it, and then video tape you signing. It’s just not convenient.

I had to do a one-off brokerage (where I don't have a personal representative) transfer fairly recently and, although they loosened up a bit during COVID, they were back to basically requiring me to show up at a brokerage branch in person. In theory, I could have gotten a Medallion Signature from my bank but it turned out they couldn't do it at my local branch and getting their central system to do it failed, so I ju…

A passport, or some other difficult-to-forge document, could be used right?
Post reply on HN