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

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

#151

Post by mreome »

voisin wrote: post #123

> Many of the speakers, already busy studying COVID-19 and under pressure from the transition to remote teaching, did not notice these clauses. The pandemic “meant working 11 to 12 hours per day,” says another speaker, Johannes Müller, a mathematician at the Technical University of Munich. “The contract was unreadable [but] I eventually sent it.” Maybe I am cold hearted, but I don’t feel any sympathy for their positi…

It is not unheard of for a presenter to have to pay the same registration fees as a non-presenting attendee, but it is also common for invited speakers to attend for free and even have their travel and accommodation expenses covered. It is extremely abnormal (if not unheard of) for a legitimate conference to charge a speaker an additional fee for presenting.

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

#152

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

johngladtj wrote: post #100
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They likely put a binding arbitration clause into the initial contract for speaking.

Why would a contract that is in dispute change the jurisdiction? The point is that the contract is invalid, so it makes no sense that it would be valid for jurisdiction

I responded to this question:

> have the speakers agreed to arbitration?

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

#153

Post by mikrotikker »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #137
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It must be the full document plaintext and date signed with your private key and should be verifiable with your public key by a court before a claim is even approachable. This is called a notary public. Its a routine requirement with immigration documents. .They can also certify copies as true. In UK for sone reason it costs over £100, and noone uses them, but in eastern europe its common and notarising documents i…

In New Zealand we've got Justices of Peace (JP's) - it's just some retired lawyers that can notarise your documents. You typically go to their home or they have little popups in public places. Best part - it's free!

I don't think it's just retired lawyers. My uncle is a JP and hes a ferry captain. But he did have to so some kind of ceremony at the courts. I think he did it in order to be the family marriage celebrant and whatnot.

Some JPs take payment in the form of a box of beer or some small thing like that.

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

#154

Post by AlecSchueler »

ljm wrote: post #124
AlecSchueler wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, a friend of mine was recently travelling through the Netherlands and asked some police officers for directions, but because he didn't have ID with him he was arrested and put in a cell overnight.

But this story lacks detail so either you can immediately jump to the conclusion that the police in the Netherlands are asking people for ID on the streets when they ask for directions, or you can maybe assume that your friend wasn’t being honest with you and was trying to save face, or something else entirely was going on. Usually when you travel you keep at least one form of ID on you - probably not your passport b…

The salient detail is that he was arrested for not presenting his ID, which was in his where he was staying for the night. He didn't know that the NL requires it to always be carried.

You may assume anything you like indeed.

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

#155

Post by Jnr »

Roark66 wrote: post #79
Jnr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whole EU and EEZ has standard approved verified electornic signature format. So in EU even cross country signing is possible.

Indeed, it is a pretty cool system, but every time I look into it I'm puzzled by the variety of costs for essentially the same thing. You can buy a cheapest personal certificate that is recognised as equivalent to a physical signature for contract signing for 50eur for 1 year. Or you can spend 500EUR for the same thing. Some come with a smart card, some don't. For some you get software that works offline, for some yo…

At least in Latvia use of qualified electronic signature is completely free of charge. And you can use government provided service or a 3rd party one backed by banks. It used to cost something for each signature since they have to run the time signature server but they quickly reallised that it made no sense to charge for it.

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

#156

Post by wink »

tlhunter wrote: post #103

Regarding tech conferences: - A good conference will pay you to speak - An okay conference will wave entry fee - A bad conference will ask you to still pay entry - A scam will charge you to speak

Exception: small community-run conferences and barcamps. If the entry fee is like 10 bucks I'll gladly still pay.
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