To be fair, the Springer empty PDF paper for $39.95, has zero errors, and zero plagiarism, so it is above the bar of their other paywalled proceedings papers.

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fhdkweig 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Even emptiness can be plagiarized. See Cage's 4'33"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3#Plagiari...

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Noumenon72 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That page says that eight years after the supposed lawsuit "Batt admitted that the alleged legal dispute had been a publicity stunt and that he had actually only made a donation of £1,000 to the John Cage Foundation."[1] I guess that he plagiarized it is sure even if the copyright claim was not litigated.

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-11964995

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dotancohen 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

4'33 is not empty! That is a common misperception. 4'33 is the sound of the ambient space around the listener. Each performance is unique.

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tanseydavid 3 hours ago | parent [-]

IMHO they are both arrogant scoundrels for doing this.

	▲	badprose 41 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		its always seemed like a prank to me; and I'm impressed that he never broke during the performance to ask "are you people really falling for this???"

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computerdork 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

interesting connection to Cage. Maybe Springer Nature also sees the empty pdf as a form of art? :)

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CamperBob2 30 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

As it introduces the (very) reduced Planck constant, it's obviously worth $39.95 for historical value alone. A bargain at any price!