I want to ask the following question, but am not sure if it is appropriate for this site. Can you help me tell if it is okay to ask here? If not, can you point to a better forum?
I consider myself part of the community of scholars. I have a few publications, but have worked (hard) in industry for more than a decade.
I had a former colleague, one who works at a former employer, review a paper that I was planning to publish. They shared it internally, and the company requests that I not publish. They say: “The only people who would care are the competition.” I've put some decent hours in it. Do they have the right to do that, to tell me that I can't publish, if the content isn't theirs and/or isn't (remotely) confidential?