Hope widespread knowledge about its existence does not kill it.
Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
11–20 of 225 posts
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#12Looks like it is piping the queries over to scholar.google.com - getting only timeouts right now though.
It uses scholar as a search engine, but then it replaces the links in the results.
e.g.
http://link.springer.com/link-to-paper
http://link.springer.com.sci-hub.io/link-to-paper
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#13Umm, "pirate website" that uses a secure.sci-hub.io, but not actually a secure connection. Really, Let's Encrypt has made this a no-brainer. Anyone making a site should be expected to be using SSL. Especially those making anything related to anything "pirate" or "secure."
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#14So what is the strategy once Springer starts getting their domains taken down? With torrents this was never a big deal once there was the DHT - it didn't matter which search engines where taken down or which trackers, the torrents lived to see another day.
This website at this stage seems particularly easy to take down as it is a centralized weak link.
Centralized services work great when they are legitimate: Netflix, Spotify, but decentralized work best when they are not legal.
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#15Hope widespread knowledge about its existence does not kill it.
http://libgen.io/ which archives the sci-hub's newly accessed papers distributes the copies through BitTorrent. Libgen itself is also mirrored in multiple locations. Even if Sci-hub is taken down, it shouldn't take long for another to pop up.
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#16Umm, "pirate website" that uses a secure.sci-hub.io, but not actually a secure connection. Really, Let's Encrypt has made this a no-brainer. Anyone making a site should be expected to be using SSL. Especially those making anything related to anything "pirate" or "secure."
Because if there's one thing pirates are known for, it's their commitment to your security.
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#17http://www.freefullpdf.com/#gsc.tab=0 is another useful site if you're a lone researcher who doesn't have taxpayers' money funding your literature search and can't afford (in some cases) $30-$40 to look at a published paper.
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#18Looks like it is piping the queries over to scholar.google.com - getting only timeouts right now though.
It's off and on. Last night I could access it but it came back.
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#19I've used sci-hub a few times. It's a little buggy and not every article can be accessed, but it works well enough to try when I'm not on campus.
$30 to read a single article is ridiculous anyway and presents a barrier to scientists who don't have, can't afford, or don't want to pay for access. I hope sci-hub stays up and improves for some time.
Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science
#20Silicon Valley and YC don't exactly have a stellar reputation for ethical behavior. Having a "pirate website" at the top of the news page doesn't exactly change that perception.
I totally get that journals are evil, and charging money for research generated with public funds is questionable. It's very frustrating as a small entity needing to view articles, and being asked to cough up $25-50. That said, there are legitimate alternatives (like emailing the corresponding author, or professional society memberships, or alumni library access, or DeepDyve). The linked website is flagrantly violating copyright and that should be cause for concern; not breaking the law is part of every engineering (and professional) ethical code.