On the other hand they were very lucky. Foreign "crank" defending himself - VS - one of the oldest and most prestigous science journals now owned by a huge pub

On the other hand they were very lucky. Foreign "crank" defending himself - VS - one of the oldest and most prestigous science journals now owned by a huge publishing company. Now imagine the next case is a multinational drug company suing an individual researcher or grad student because their published results don't fit with what the drug company would like to see.