from the just-give-me-the-pdf-and-nobody-gets-hurt dept.
The darknet is where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. An article by Kaveh Waddell over at The Atlantic describes how you can not only access illegal drugs, weapons, and other nefarious materials, but this now includes scientific research papers. Following Elsevier's successful crackdown and dissolution of Sci-Hub, the site owner, Alexandra Elbakyan, has moved it to the darknet.
There will always be techniques for accessing paywalled research for free, even without services like Sci-Hub. Some of them are much less complex than Elbakyan's website: Researchers and scholars often use the hashtag #icanhazpdf on Twitter to ask fellow academics for paywalled articles. (There's even been scholarly work published that analyzes the phenomenon—appropriately, the research is free online.)
But Sci-Hub's ingenious methods automate the process, cut out middle men on Twitter, and don't advertise the request for, essentially, pirated research. And Elbakyan says her website's presence on the dark web will help keep it accessible even if legal action dismantles Sci-Hub's new home on the easily accessible surface web.
Related Stories
Tired of seeing [abstract only] on SoylentNews? Try searching for the title on the Library Genesis search engine.
TorrentFreak reports that the academic publishing giant Elsevier has filed a complaint in a New York District Court to attempt to shut down the Library Genesis and SciHub.org search engines:
According to Elsevier the company is losing revenue because of these sites, so in order to stem the tide the publisher has filed a complaint [PDF] at a New York federal court hoping to shut them down.
"Defendants are reproducing and distributing unauthorized copies of Elsevier's copyrighted materials, unlawfully obtained from ScienceDirect, through Sci-Hub and through various websites affiliated with the Library Genesis Project," the complaint reads. "Specifically, Defendants utilize their websites located at sci-hub.org and at the Libgen Domains to operate an international network of piracy and copyright infringement by circumventing legal and authorized means of access to the ScienceDirect database," it adds.
According to Elsevier, the websites access articles by using unlawfully obtained student or faculty access credentials. The articles are then added to the "pirate" library, backed up on their own servers.
Tom Allen, President of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), informs TF that websites such as Libgen pose a threat to the quality of scientific publications, as well as the public health. "Scholarly publishers work to ensure the accuracy of the scientific record by issuing corrections and revisions to research findings as needed; Libgen typically does not," Allen says. "As a result, its repository of illegally obtained content poses a threat to both quality journal publishing and to public health and safety."
The court has yet to decide whether the injunctions should be granted, but considering outcomes in recent piracy cases there's a good chance this will happen. For the time being, however, the Libgen and Sci-hub websites remain online.
Original Submission
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Two years ago, academic publisher Elsevier filed a complaint against Sci-Hub, Libgen and several related "pirate" sites.
The publisher accused the websites of making academic papers widely available to the public, without permission.
While Sci-Hub and Libgen are nothing like the average pirate site, they are just as illegal according to Elsevier's legal team, which swiftly obtained a preliminary injunction from a New York District Court.
The injunction ordered Sci-Hub's founder Alexandra Elbakyan, who is the only named defendant, to quit offering access to any Elsevier content. This didn't happen, however.
Sci-Hub and the other websites lost control over several domain names, but were quick to bounce back. They remain operational today and have no intention of shutting down, despite pressure from the Court.
This prompted Elsevier to request a default judgment and a permanent injunction against the Sci-Hub and Libgen defendants. In a motion filed this week, Elsevier's legal team describes the sites as pirate havens.
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/elsevier-wants-15-million-piracy-damages-from-sci-hub-and-libgen-170518/
Previously:
The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
New York Times Opinion Piece on Open Access Publishing
A Spiritual Successor to Aaron Swartz is Angering Publishers All Over Again
After losing a lawsuit filed by the American Chemical Society (ACS) due to failure to appear, Sci-Hub has been ordered to pay the ACS $4.8 million. But the district court's ruling also states that the Sci-Hub website should be blocked by ISPs, search engines, and domain name registrars:
The American Chemical Society (ACS) has won a lawsuit it filed in June against Sci-Hub, a website providing illicit free access to millions of paywalled scientific papers. ACS had alleged copyright infringement, trademark counterfeiting and trademark infringement; a district court in Virginia ruled on 3 November that Sci-Hub should pay the ACS $4.8 million in damages after Sci-Hub representatives failed to attend court.
The new ruling also states that internet search engines, web hosting sites, internet service providers (ISPs), domain name registrars and domain name registries cease facilitating "any or all domain names and websites through which Defendant Sci-Hub engages in unlawful access to, use, reproduction, and distribution of the ACS Marks or ACS's Copyrighted Works."
"This case could set precedent for the extent third-parties on the internet are required to enforce government-mandated censorship," says Daniel Himmelstein, a data scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who recently analyzed how many journal papers Sci-Hub holds.
Sci-Hub hosts millions of unpaywalled, full academic papers.
Previously: Elsevier Cracks Down on "Pirate" Science Search Engines
The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
Sci-Hub, the Repository of "Infringing" Academic Papers Now Available Via "Telegram"
Elsevier Wants $15 Million Piracy Damages from Sci-Hub and Libgen
US Court Grants Elsevier Millions in Damages From Sci-Hub
Sci-Hub Faces $4.8 Million Piracy Damages and ISP Blocking
Sci-Hub is a web hydra, not unlike The Pirate Bay:
Sci-Hub is often referred to as the "Pirate Bay of Science," and this description has become more and more apt in recent weeks.
Initially, the comparison was made to illustrate that Sci-Hub is used by researchers to download articles for free, much like the rest of the world uses The Pirate Bay to get free stuff.
There are more parallels though. Increasingly, Sci-Hub has trouble keeping its domain names. Following two injunctions in the US, academic publishers now have court orders to compel domain registrars and registries to suspend Sci-Hub's addresses.
Although there is no such court order for The Pirate Bay, the notorious torrent site also has a long history of domain suspensions. Both sites appear to tackle the problem in a similar manner. They simply ignore all enforcement efforts and bypass them with new domains and other circumvention tools. They have several backup domains in place as well as unsuspendable .onion addresses, which are accessible on the Tor network.
Since late November, a lot of Sci-Hub users have switched to Sci-Hub.bz when other domains were suspended. And, when the .bz domain was targeted a few days ago, they moved to different alternatives. It's a continuous game of Whack-a-Mole that is hard to stop.
Don't forget Library Genesis .
Previously: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
Sci-Hub, the Repository of "Infringing" Academic Papers Now Available Via "Telegram"
Elsevier Wants $15 Million Piracy Damages from Sci-Hub and Libgen
US Court Grants Elsevier Millions in Damages From Sci-Hub
Sci-Hub Faces $4.8 Million Piracy Damages and ISP Blocking
Virginia District Court Demands that ISPs and Search Engines Block Sci-Hub
Documentary puts lens on the open-access movement upending scientific publishing
Jason Schmitt was working at Atlantic Records when the online site Napster disrupted the music industry by making copyrighted songs freely available. Now, the communications and media researcher at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, is pushing for a similar disruption of academic publishing with Paywall, a documentary about the open-access movement that debuts today in a Washington, D.C., theater. "I don't think that it's right that for-profit publishers can make 35%–40% profit margins. The content is provided for them for free by academics," Schmitt, who produced the film, says.
The documentary explores the impact of Sci-Hub, a website that provides pirated versions of paywalled papers for free online, and interviews academics and publishing figures. Schmitt says many large publishers refused to go on camera—although representatives from Science and Nature did—and he is not impressed that several have begun publishing some open-access journals. "Elsevier is as much to open access as McDonald's fast food is to healthy," he says.
Sci-Hub and Library Genesis.
Related:
The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
Wellcome Trust Recommends Free Scientific Journals
Sci-Hub, the Repository of "Infringing" Academic Papers Now Available Via "Telegram"
Research Libraries Announce Boycott of Elsevier Journals Over Open Access
Elsevier Wants $15 Million Piracy Damages from Sci-Hub and Libgen
US Court Grants Elsevier Millions in Damages From Sci-Hub
Sci-Hub Faces $4.8 Million Piracy Damages and ISP Blocking
Virginia District Court Demands that ISPs and Search Engines Block Sci-Hub
Sci-Hub Bounces from TLD to TLD
Sci-Hub Proves That Piracy Can be Dangerously Useful
Plan S: Radical Open-Access Science Initiative in Europe
Meet the Guy Behind the Libgen Torrent Seeding Movement
Libgen and Sci-Hub, regularly referred to as the 'Pirate Bay of Science', are continually under fire. However, if all of the important data is decentralized, almost any eventuality can be dealt with. Today we meet the guy leading a new movement to ensure that Libgen's archives are distributed via the highest quality torrent swarms possible.
[...] [The] torrents used by Libgen were not in good shape so 'shrine' began a movement to boost the quality of their swarms. The project was quickly spotted and then supported by two companies (Seedbox.io and UltraSeedbox.com) that offer 'seedboxes', effectively server-based torrent clients with plenty of storage space and bandwidth available – perfect for giving swarms a boost.
The project gained plenty of traction and as a follow-up thread details, considerable success. Today we catch up with 'shrine' for some history, background information, and an interesting status report.
"Ironically this all started when I saw the TorrentFreak article about [Libgen] mirrors getting taken down. I immediately decided I wanted to find a way to preserve and protect the collection," 'shrine' says.
[...] "Scientists in the Reddit threads are sharing stories of how LibGen made their research possible. Unnamed cloud providers have pledged 100TB allocation on their servers. The response has been overwhelmingly positive from everyone."
Previously:
Elsevier Cracks Down on "Pirate" Science Search Engines
The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
Sci-Hub, the Repository of "Infringing" Academic Papers Now Available Via "Telegram"
Elsevier Wants $15 Million Piracy Damages from Sci-Hub and Libgen
US Court Grants Elsevier Millions in Damages From Sci-Hub
Sci-Hub Faces $4.8 Million Piracy Damages and ISP Blocking
Virginia District Court Demands that ISPs and Search Engines Block Sci-Hub
Sci-Hub Bounces from TLD to TLD
Sci-Hub Proves That Piracy Can be Dangerously Useful
Paywall: A Documentary About the Movement for Open-Access Science Publishing
Sci-Hub Founder Criticises Sudden Twitter Ban Over Over "Counterfeit" Content
Twitter has suspended the account of Sci-Hub, a site that offers a free gateway to paywalled research. The site is accused of violating the counterfeit policy of the social media platform. However, founder Alexandra Elbakyan believes that this is an effort to silence the growing support amidst a high profile court case in India.
[...] In recent weeks, Sci-Hub has become the focus of a high-profile lawsuit in India where Elsevier, Wiley, and American Chemical Society want the site blocked. The case isn't as straightforward as in other countries, in part because access to Sci-Hub is seen as vital by many local academics.
Earlier this week, the Indian High Court declared the case an "issue of public importance," inviting experts and scientists to testify on the matter. Meanwhile, however, the pressure on Sci-Hub grows.
Judge: Sci-Hub Blocking Case "Important" For Science, Community Representations Will Be Heard
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @12:41AM
Darknet? Sci-Hub is right here bro. [sci-hub.io]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @12:51AM
She set it up on the darknet in case the lightnet one gets shut down.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday February 16 2016, @01:28PM
Lightnet? What a foolhardy and irresponsible thing to joke about.
I wish they'd paywalled Newton and Leibniz. Maybe even Ibn Sina and Aristotle.
Maybe they'd have made enough, to still be alive today.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:07AM
I'm wondering where to publish a paper without having to turn over copyright or pay a ridiculously huge fee for an "author pays" model. Schools and research grants pick up those fees, but for those of us who aren't so lucky to have those, what can be done?
This pirate research site sounds like an answer. Turn over copyright, then watch the pirates ignore the paywall bull of these parasitic academic publishers. Freedom from copyright would be nice to have, but toothless copyright could work too. Whatever makes the research available.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dyingtolive on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:29AM
I mean, if you just want ANY place to put it out there, I'd say a personal website suffices as much as the next. Arguably, throw it up in as many 'free' places as you can to get it out there if you want. I have a place I could host it for you if you don't.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:38AM
https://doaj.org/search?source=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22filtered%22%3A%7B%22filter%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22term%22%3A%7B%22_type%22%3A%22journal%22%7D%7D%2C%7B%22term%22%3A%7B%22index.has_apc.exact%22%3A%22No%22%7D%7D%2C%7B%22term%22%3A%7B%22index.language.exact%22%3A%22English%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%2C%22query%22%3A%7B%22match_all%22%3A%7B%7D%7D%7D%7D%2C%22from%22%3A0%2C%22size%22%3A10%7D [doaj.org]
Try to narrow it down by subject.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by sbgen on Tuesday February 16 2016, @03:15AM
Have you considered *PLoS* family of journals? Also there is *arXiv* and for biological sciences *bioarXiv*. One more, PeerJ, it charges affordable, nominal fee. Perhaps *Faculty of 1000* (F1000research.com)??
Good luck
Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday February 16 2016, @03:53AM
PLOS ONE charges $1,350 to publish. I checked.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by sbgen on Tuesday February 16 2016, @07:54PM
I believe they also provide free publication depending upon your financial condition - if you are underfunded or from a developing country with low funding, I believe they waive the fee. However this means the actual fee for those who can is a bit too high. At least that was what they original scheme was.
Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:02PM
True, but I think the DOAJ list I posted [soylentnews.org] is worth a look. I don't know if there are any megajournals like PLOS on there, but there are certainly options to choose from.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @07:51AM
arXiv.org
(Score: 2) by martyb on Tuesday February 16 2016, @01:03PM
In the first paragraph, you do NOT want to turn over the copyright, but in the second, it seems to be acceptable.
If you are willing to let go of some control, here is a thought. Doing research suggests that you are aware of other published research in your area of expertise.
I'm just thinking out loud but here's an idea: Find an author of something related, contact them, and ask if they would be willing to submit it (through their organization) in exchange for being listed as a second author. Maybe they could, as part of the bargain, do a review of it for you and you could incorporate any reasonable changes, so it's more of an even exchange.
I am not in academia, so I have no idea if this would work, but given all that I've seen about "publish or perish", I'd think that there would be some traction to this idea.
Best of luck!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @06:53PM
You might want to try this journal [universalrejection.org].
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:45AM
I know you can reach it at http://sci-hub.io [sci-hub.io] today, but in case Elsevier and those others try to take it down again, what's the .onion address I can reach via Tor? I don't see a link in either TFS or TFA to it.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @06:03AM
http://scihub22266oqcxt.onion [scihub22266oqcxt.onion]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:47AM
I believe this whole shebang is a good example when one tries to own knowledge.
The ensuing mayhem is like watching a bunch of surfers argue over who's wave it is.
In the end, the lawyers, law-makers, and law-enforcers - end up with all the money.
If you want to own knowledge, you better keep it in your head - or write it down and keep it in a safe.
My kid sister had it right all the time... "It isn't a secret anymore if you tell anyone".
The best one can really hope for is the tidbit of knowledge submitted to the pool of humanities' knowledge will be named after you.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @04:08AM
Yakima, WA is where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
There, FTFY.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday February 16 2016, @05:18AM
Gravy Train!!! [elsevier.com]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:50AM
So you could find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy somewhere else?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @04:35AM
Really.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Tuesday February 16 2016, @05:46AM
"The darknet is where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. "
Your mind tricks won't work on me, Sith.
Not only do I think nerds who recognize that reference believe Knowledge should be Free, but that they would also balk at the use of cultural memes to try and subvert essential and unalienable rights to privacy. I know that the government is collaborating with social media organizations to research how memes spread in order to eventually piggyback propaganda onto them, and potentially create their own, but you won't fool me or my aluminum foil hat.
As far as scum and villany, no, I don't think that people jacking off to illegal porn, doing drugs which only harm themselves, and now *gasp* learning is any worse than the people in Congress who are a part of the Military Industrial Complex that literally bombs thousands of people to death every year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @07:52AM
/r/scholar
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:25PM
Based on my limited experience in music and audio-related subreddits, I expect that /r/scholar will be a continuous parade of newcomers asking for shortcuts to attain a well-respected position in academia, preferably via nice Youtube tutorials on the matter so they can avoid the unnecessary process of learning the abstract complexities of the alphabet.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:50AM
When scientists have to resort to stupid shenanigans like this.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @09:53AM
The Dark Ages called (exercise left to the reader), they want their suppression of our scientific advancement back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @12:01PM
Techies are the new Catholics, preserving mankind's knowledge.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @07:38PM
preserving mankind's knowledge.
Or as I like to call it 'im not being lazy and deleting things I am preserving history'. What? 20 copies of ccleaner with different versions dont mean much? Im not a data horder I dont have a problem. I just need 40TB more of storage! :)