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Futurism has done an interview over e-mail with Alexandra Elbakyan who founded Sci-Hub ten years ago. Over that time, it has become both widely used and well-stocked, having picked up momentum in 2016. There are now over 87 million research articles in its database, though not evenly distributed over academic disciplines.
As of September, Sci-Hub has officially existed for 10 years — a milestone that came as a lawsuit to determine if the website infringed on copyright laws sits in India’s Delhi High Court. Just a few months prior, Elbakyan tweeted that she was notified of a request from the FBI to access her data from Apple. And before that, the major academic publisher Elsevier was awarded $15 million in damages after the Department of Justice ruled that Sci-Hub broke copyright law in the U.S.
But that ruling can’t seem to touch Sci-Hub. And Elbakyan remains absolutely unrepentant. She advocates for a future in which scientific knowledge is shared freely, and she’s confident that it’s coming.
Futurism caught up with Elbakyan to hear what’s next. Over email, she explained her vision for the site’s future, her thoughts on copyright law, and more. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The article goes on to report that she had expected copyright law to be corrected long before so much time had passed. In many ways Sci-Hub can be seen as a form of push back against the academic publishing houses which are infamous for abusive practices and pricing. The cost of research, writing, editing, peer-review, and more are all borne by the researchers and their institutions with little beyond distribution borne by the publisher. The big publishing houses then sell access back to the same researchers and institutions at rates that a small and decreasing number can afford.
Previously:
(2021) Large Publishers Aim to Own the Entire Academic Research Publishing Stack
(2021) Sci-Hub Pledges Open Source & AI Alongside Crypto Donation Drive
(2018) Swedish ISP Punishes Elsevier for Forcing It to Block Sci-Hub by Also Blocking Elsevier
(2018) Sci-Hub Proves That Piracy Can be Dangerously Useful
(2017) Sci-Hub Bounces from TLD to TLD
(2015) Elsevier Cracks Down on "Pirate" Science Search Engines
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 11 2021, @10:53PM (5 children)
Won't someone think of the poor, oppressed owner class?
Shove it, Scrooge. Alexandra Elbakyan is doing humanity a desperately needed service for the advancement of the entire species.
Also, seriously wife material. World needs more women kicking ass and taking names.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 11 2021, @11:40PM (4 children)
No, it's Marvel Comics that is doing humanity a desperately needed service by turning Superman into a gay homosexual... more Lois Lane for the rest of us.
(Score: 3, Touché) by pipedwho on Tuesday October 12 2021, @12:41AM (1 child)
What is a 'gay homosexual'? Is that a homosexual man that bats for other side and likes women afterall?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 14 2021, @07:50PM
Perhaps they are using the archaic meaning of gay, i.e. Superman is carefree in being homosexual ...
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday October 12 2021, @01:27PM (1 child)
Highly surprised they didn't turn Super Girl.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 12 2021, @03:27PM
Too stereotyped. "Strong powerful woman - must be a lesbo."
Also can't turn Batman, because his "Holey History Batman!!" with Boy Wonder would be a bit sus.
The Flash is a bit problematic too. "The Flash" really?
Spiderman is already a bit creepy-crawly.
Gay Captain America would get the redneck nerds riled up.
Wonder Woman is obviously already gay.
Maybe Iron Man.
But the obvious one to turn is Mr Fantastic. The real reason Johnny Storm had a ring of Fire.
Ooh, just thought of it. What about a Rainbow Lantern?