D*a
发帖数: 6830 | 1 http://www.sciencealert.com/this-woman-has-illegally-uploaded-m
Researcher illegally shares millions of science papers free online to spread
knowledge
Welcome to the Pirate Bay of science.
FIONA MACDONALD 12 FEB 2016
A researcher in Russia has made more than 48 million journal articles -
almost every single peer-reviewed paper every published - freely available
online. And she's now refusing to shut the site down, despite a court
injunction and a lawsuit from Elsevier, one of the world's biggest
publishers.
For those of you who aren't already using it, the site in question is Sci-
Hub, and it's sort of like a Pirate Bay of the science world. It was
established in 2011 by neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, who was frustrated
that she couldn't afford to access the articles needed for her research,
and it's since gone viral, with hundreds of thousands of papers being
downloaded daily. But at the end of last year, the site was ordered to be
taken down by a New York district court - a ruling that Elbakyan has decided
to fight, triggering a debate over who really owns science.
"Payment of $32 is just insane when you need to skim or read tens or
hundreds of these papers to do research. I obtained these papers by pirating
them," Elbakyan told Torrent Freak last year. "Everyone should have access
to knowledge regardless of their income or affiliation. And that’s
absolutely legal."
If it sounds like a modern day Robin Hood struggle, that's because it kinda
is. But in this story, it's not just the poor who don't have access to
scientific papers - journal subscriptions have become so expensive that
leading universities such as Harvard and Cornell have admitted they can no
longer afford them. Researchers have also taken a stand - with 15,000
scientists vowing to boycott publisher Elsevier in part for its excessive
paywall fees.
Don't get us wrong, journal publishers have also done a whole lot of good -
they've encouraged better research thanks to peer review, and before the
Internet, they were crucial to the dissemination of knowledge.
But in recent years, more and more people are beginning to question whether
they're still helping the progress of science. In fact, in some cases, the '
publish or perish' mentality is creating more problems than solutions, with
a growing number of predatory publishers now charging researchers to have
their work published - often without any proper peer review process or even
editing.
"They feel pressured to do this," Elbakyan wrote in an open letter to the
New York judge last year. "If a researcher wants to be recognised, make a
career - he or she needs to have publications in such journals."
That's where Sci-Hub comes into the picture. The site works in two stages.
First of all when you search for a paper, Sci-Hub tries to immediately
download it from fellow pirate database LibGen. If that doesn't work, Sci-
Hub is able to bypass journal paywalls thanks to a range of access keys that
have been donated by anonymous academics (thank you, science spies).
This means that Sci-Hub can instantly access any paper published by the big
guys, including JSTOR, Springer, Sage, and Elsevier, and deliver it to you
for free within seconds. The site then automatically sends a copy of that
paper to LibGen, to help share the love.
It's an ingenious system, as Simon Oxenham explains for Big Think:
"In one fell swoop, a network has been created that likely has a greater
level of access to science than any individual university, or even
government for that matter, anywhere in the world. Sci-Hub represents the
sum of countless different universities' institutional access - literally a
world of knowledge."
That's all well and good for us users, but understandably, the big
publishers are pissed off. Last year, a New York court delivered an
injunction against Sci-Hub, making its domain unavailable (something
Elbakyan dodged by switching to a new location), and the site is also being
sued by Elsevier for "irreparable harm" - a case that experts are predicting
will win Elsevier around $750 to $150,000 for each pirated article. Even at
the lowest estimations, that would quickly add up to millions in damages.
But Elbakyan is not only standing her ground, she's come out swinging,
claiming that it's Elsevier that have the illegal business model.
"I think Elsevier’s business model is itself illegal," she told Torrent
Freak, referring to article 27 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which
states that "everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural
life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific
advancement and its benefits".
She also explains that the academic publishing situation is different to the
music or film industry, where pirating is ripping off creators. "All papers
on their website are written by researchers, and researchers do not receive
money from what Elsevier collects. That is very different from the music or
movie industry, where creators receive money from each copy sold," she said.
Elbakyan hopes that the lawsuit will set a precedent, and make it very clear
to the scientific world either way who owns their ideas.
"If Elsevier manages to shut down our projects or force them into the
darknet, that will demonstrate an important idea: that the public does not
have the right to knowledge," she said. "We have to win over Elsevier and
other publishers and show that what these commercial companies are doing is
fundamentally wrong."
To be fair, Elbakyan is somewhat protected by the fact that she's in Russia
and doesn't have any US assets, so even if Elsevier wins their lawsuit, it's
going to be pretty hard for them to get the money.
Still, it's a bold move, and we're pretty interested to see how this fight
turns out - because if there's one thing the world needs more of, it's
scientific knowledge. In the meantime, Sci-Hub is still up and accessible
for anyone who wants to use it, and Elbakyan has no plans to change that
anytime soon. | j****n
发帖数: 3370 | | D*a
发帖数: 6830 | 3 纽约法院要求网站下线。不过正式查封还很麻烦的吧。尤其网站这种东西
【在 j****n 的大作中提到】
: 不能申请强制？
| m***T
发帖数: 11058 | 4 支持，象Elsevier这样的出版商两边赚钱根本就不合理 | k***a
发帖数: 636 | | s******y
发帖数: 17729 | 6 鹅妹不错，点赞
spread
【在 D*a 的大作中提到】
: http://www.sciencealert.com/this-woman-has-illegally-uploaded-m
: Researcher illegally shares millions of science papers free online to spread
: knowledge
: Welcome to the Pirate Bay of science.
: FIONA MACDONALD 12 FEB 2016
: A researcher in Russia has made more than 48 million journal articles -
: almost every single peer-reviewed paper every published - freely available
: online. And she's now refusing to shut the site down, despite a court
: injunction and a lawsuit from Elsevier, one of the world's biggest
: publishers.
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