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posted by chromas on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the on-the-one-hand-information-wants-to-be-expensive…on-the-other-hand,-information-wants-to-be-free dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Despite two lost legal battles in the US, domain name seizures, and millions of dollars in damage claims, Sci-Hub continues to offer unauthorized access to academic papers. The site's founder says that she would rather operate legally, but copyright gets in the way. Sci-Hub is not the problem she argues, it's a solution, something many academics appear to agree with.

Sci-Hub has often been referred to as "The Pirate Bay of Science," but that description really sells the site short.

While both sites are helping the public to access copyrighted content without permission, Sci-Hub has also become a crucial tool that arguably helps the progress of science.

The site allows researchers to bypass expensive paywalls so they can read articles written by their fellow colleagues. The information in these 'pirated' articles is then used to provide the foundation for future research.

What the site does is illegal, according to the law, but Sci-Hub is praised by thousands of researchers and academics around the world. In particular, those who don't have direct access to the expensive journals but aspire to excel in their academic field.

Source: https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-proves-that-piracy-can-be-dangerously-useful-180804/


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:17PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:17PM (#721487)

    > violates the right to obtain a copy of the information that legally belongs to someone else.

    Conversely, if my taxes paid for any portion of the grant, then the paper should be legally free for me to read.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:47PM (#721499)

    Any part? If you want to go that route, then it seems that you should only be allowed to read that which is proportionate to the funding.

  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday August 14 2018, @09:15PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @09:15PM (#721541) Journal

    I guess in the United States that FASTR still hasn't passed yet. I wonder who the roadblocks on that are.

    --
    This sig for rent.