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US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

torrentfreak.com

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Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#51

Post by KGIII »

avh02 wrote: post #6
wccrawford wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blocking of the site by ISPs and search engines is the bad part, IMO. Other than that, it seems pretty standard. And it's kind of dumb, because they could just get a new domain name, like many of the other torrent sites do. It's effectively worthless.

I grew up in a country where certain websites (you know, like adult sites) are blocked, I'm not comparing this to that exactly, but isn't it strange to be told that your ISP is hereby not allowed to provide you access to a website? Especially when nobody unanimously agrees that it's a bad thing? (I'm not here to argue the ethics/morality of it, but pointing out that it has proponents on both sides) I mean, I know blo…

It is pretty abnormal for the US, but not unheard of.

The problem is, that mostly the only ones impacted are the people who were committing copyright infringement and they are a very small minority of the total population, poorly funded, and not a viable voting bloc.

It is going to be a tough battle. However, we have alternative means to reach the site.

Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#52

Post by KGIII »

aw3c2 wrote: post #46
HarryHirsch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worrying thing is that now there's a single point of failure: Elbakyan. She has the power to cut off anyone she wants to, and she did it in the past to some Russian university that dared criticize her.

Do your part and start mirroring parts of it! http://libgen.io/scimag/repository_torrent/

Okay. I've got a dedicated seed box but it is only DSL. I have ample disk space.

What am I looking at, at that link? Is there a 'mirror the whole damned thing' torrent and how frequently should I update this?

I already mirror a bunch of Linux ISOs, so it's not a problem to add more.

Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#53

Post by Bromskloss »

Knufen wrote: post #25
dmix wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who does this money go to? Does a percentage go back to the scientists who write the papers?

The publisher, essentially the researcher gives the rights to his paper in exchange for publishing. Then the publisher put the research behind a paywall and even the researcher who wrote it will have to pay.

> even the researcher who wrote it will have to pay.

Eh, pay for what? The author already has the article. Often-times, the agreement furthermore permits limited dissemination of the article by the author, possibly even on the author's web page.

Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#54

Post by nerpderp83 »

rayiner wrote: post #30
Knufen wrote: post #5

As someone who works in academia (Europe) I understand that scientific papers need hosting and server space and such, but does it really help humanity that all advances will be behind very expensive pay walls? I would argue otherwise. The current trend is not sustainable nor favorable for anyone except parasitic publishers. Edit: I understand the website was breaking the law, but this seems like symptom treating

The law doesn't operate by going back to first principles ("will it really help humanity?") in every case. We've decided copyright is reasonable as a concept, and we evaluate each case by reference to the rules of copyright, without creating special exceptions all over the place. Nor are any special exceptions necessary. Absolutely nothing prevents scientists and academics from publishing in open-access journals. Sci…

Individual scientists don't have a right to screen over the future.

There is a nice combo of fatalistic, libertarianesque schadenfreude. Only the most politically and financially stable scientists can afford to publish in non-impact-factor journals.

Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#57

Post by nerpderp83 »

Scaevolus wrote: post #27
PenguinCoder wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the key takeaway from the article. As much as I agree that researches deserve fair compensation for their work; I also believe gate-keeping academic knowledge is also wrong. It's not surprising that the US legal system found against Sci-hub. Issuing the legally binding statement, that blocking a site by ISP and search engine level, is the real problem. It sets a very tenuous precedent.

Researchers don't receive a cut of the journal access fees. They generally have to pay thousands of dollars to publish in a journal in the first place.

Their library also has to pay thousands to subscribe to this journal.

Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#58

Post by porfirium »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #10
Overtonwindow wrote: post #4

Thankfully there's TOR and other methods to get around this. I disagree completely with the courts. Long live Sci-Hub

The worrying thing is that now there's a single point of failure: Elbakyan. She has the power to cut off anyone she wants to, and she did it in the past to some Russian university that dared criticize her.

That was really catty.

Story time: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/elbakyan-pulls-sci-hub-ru...

Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#59

Post by Bromskloss »

mattmanser wrote: post #40
rayiner wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The law doesn't operate by going back to first principles ("will it really help humanity?") in every case. We've decided copyright is reasonable as a concept, and we evaluate each case by reference to the rules of copyright, without creating special exceptions all over the place. Nor are any special exceptions necessary. Absolutely nothing prevents scientists and academics from publishing in open-access journals. Sci…

This presents some pretty extreme view points as if they're perfectly reasonable. I doubt you could find any member of the public who would say "Yes" if asked "Should research you paid for cost you money to read?". No reasonable person would agree with the rules as they are if they were introduced today, we got here because it's not an election issue and special interests and lobbyists have distorted rules written ce…

> I doubt you could find any member of the public who would say "Yes" if asked "Should research you paid for cost you money to read?".

Isn't that a claim that the public may have against the researchers, rather than against journals? A journal is merely _offering_ a publishing service, and the public may, if they deem that service unacceptable, demand of the researchers that they do not use it.

Re: US Court Grants ISPs and Search Engine Blockade of Sci-Hub

#60

Post by oh_sigh »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #10
Overtonwindow wrote: post #4

Thankfully there's TOR and other methods to get around this. I disagree completely with the courts. Long live Sci-Hub

The worrying thing is that now there's a single point of failure: Elbakyan. She has the power to cut off anyone she wants to, and she did it in the past to some Russian university that dared criticize her.

No there isn't - anyone can pirate the pirated stuff off of sci hub.
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