[Fis] _ Pirate Bay of Science

Sat Feb 13 17:24:24 CET 2016

hear, hear!

There's something important about the politics of information in this case.
Sociologist Steve Fuller has argued that the open access movement is merely
a "consumerist revolt, academic style" (see
http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/9953/comment-page-1). It's an
interesting case he makes, but I think he's wrong.

Is there a connection between Floridi's information ethics and open access
where a more defensible justification grounded in information science can
be made? Or some other theoretical framework?

best wish,

Mark

On 13 February 2016 at 16:12, Bob Logan <logan at physics.utoronto.ca> wrote:

> Dear FISers fyi - Bob
>
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> Begin forwarded message:
>
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>
> http://www.sciencealert.com/this-woman-has-illegally-uploaded-millions-of-journal-articles-in-an-attempt-to-open-up-science
>
> 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
> <http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/a-pirate-bay-for-science>, 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 <http://sci-hub.io/>, 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
> <http://www.nature.com/news/pirate-research-paper-sites-play-hide-and-seek-with-publishers-1.18876>
>  - 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
> <https://torrentfreak.com/science-pirate-attacks-elseviers-copyright-monopoly-in-court-150916/>
> . "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
> <https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices>
>  and Cornell
> <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v426/n6964/full/426217a.html> have
> admitted they can no longer afford them. Researchers have also taken a
> stand - with 15,000 scientists vowing to boycott publisher Elsevier
> <http://thecostofknowledge.com/> 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
> <http://www.sciencealert.com/journal-accepts-paper-titled-get-me-off-your-f-cking-mailing-list>
>  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
> <http://www.sciencealert.com/two-scientific-journals-have-accepted-a-study-by-maggie-simpson-and-edna-krabappel>
> .
>
> "They feel pressured to do this," Elbakyan wrote in an open letter to the
> New York judge last year
> <https://torrentfreak.com/images/sci-hub-reply.pdf>. "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
> <https://sites.google.com/site/themetalibrary/library-genesis>. 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
> <http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/a-pirate-bay-for-science>:
>
> "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
> <http://www.nature.com/news/pirate-research-paper-sites-play-hide-and-seek-with-publishers-1.18876>,
> making its domain unavailable (something Elbakyan dodged by switching to
> a new location <http://sci-hub.io/>), and the site is also being sued by
> Elsevier for "irreparable harm" - a case that experts are predicting will
> win Elsevier <http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/a-pirate-bay-for-science> 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,
> <https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-tears-down-academias-illegal-copyright-paywalls-150627/>referring
> to article 27 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which states that
> <http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html>"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. <https://torrentfreak.com/images/sci-hub-reply.pdf>
>
> 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.
> <https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-tears-down-academias-illegal-copyright-paywalls-150627/>
>  "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
> <http://www.nature.com/news/pirate-research-paper-sites-play-hide-and-seek-with-publishers-1.18876>
>  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
> <http://sci-hub.io/> for anyone who wants to use it, and Elbakyan has no
> plans to change that anytime soon.
>
>
> ______________________
>
> Robert K. Logan
> Prof. Emeritus - Physics - U. of Toronto
> Fellow University of St. Michael's College
> Chief Scientist - sLab at OCAD
> http://utoronto.academia.edu/RobertKLogan
> www.physics.utoronto.ca/Members/logan
> www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Logan5/publications
>
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-- 
Dr. Mark William Johnson
Institute of Learning and Teaching
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
University of Liverpool

Visiting Professor
Far Eastern Federal University, Russia

Phone: 07786 064505
Email: johnsonmwj1 at gmail.com
Blog: http://dailyimprovisation.blogspot.com
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