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Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

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Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#161

Post by cantrevealname »

Anyone remember Napster? There were extremely obscure musical recordings that were instantly found on Napster that are impossible to find even today. It took a long time for anyone to rebuild that data to the level of usefulness that Napster had.

If Sci-Hub is forced to shut down due to legal pressure, technical problems, running out of money, or the founder losing interest, it would take a long time for anyone to duplicate Sci-Hub if they started from zero.

I think a good way to keep the cause alive is to backup or mirror the 85,483,811 papers hosted on Sci-Hub. That is, if she's willing to allow it (maybe it's already being done, but how widely?).

In the case of Sci-Hub, you'd need between 85 and 850 TB for each backup or mirror depending on whether the average paper size is 1 MB or 10 MB.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#162

Post by thrdbndndn »

542458 wrote: post #128
thrdbndndn wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most prestigious The existing "prestigious" journals are prestigious because of the peer-reviewing process. How do we solve this problem with Sci-hub? I mean, you can publish your research anywhere (like your homepage) already if you choose to.

It’s not really the peer review process that makes them prestigious. The peer review process employed by world-class journals doesn’t guarantee good science (see: all sorts of high profile retractions). And it’s not really a complicated system - it’s easy to clone, as the procedures are all public and the important players are all volunteers. But cloning the top journals’ peer review process wouldn’t make you a top j…

Point taken.

I think ultimately the problem of academia publication isn't the openness of access (which obviously is good if we can have), but the whole system as you mentioned.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#163

Post by hirundo »

Prometheus, Titan god of fire, was sentenced by Zeus to eternal torture. An eagle ate his liver every day and it grew back overnight to be eaten again. The Modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein, didn't end well either, dying of the arctic cold while chasing his monster. I wish Ms Elbakyan, our Even More Modern Prometheus, a kinder fate. But clearly it's a high risk job.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#164

Post by samatman »

drewmol wrote: post #138
samatman wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't tell if it's intentional (some variation on Poe's law applies here), but this is a near-perfect illustration of the difference between a rivalrous (space in an intersection) and non-rivalrous (copies of a digital file) good. I will allow that there may be some harms which can result from unlimited copying of anything you want— but they bear no resemblance to the collision of automobiles in the midst of a busy i…

I assume an open intersection or clear path is implied in which case the intersection space becomes non-rivalrous. Automated enforcement w red light cameras change the outcomes however

Probably! If I had to offer a definitive opinion on the author's intention I would agree with this interpretation.

But physical space is inherently rivalrous, and a policy of "everyone runs a red light if they think they can get away with it" is going to have people being disastrously wrong sometimes.

I've actually ridden a scooter in places in SE Asia which basically work this way and it's... different. Less insane than it sounds, or looks like, but the rates of traffic fatality are objectively much higher.

This is why I thought it was interesting enough to comment upon.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#165

Post by arp242 »

cblconfederate wrote: post #17
Jsone wrote: post #6

The article is blocked behind a subscription prompt for me, but it's implemented in a silly way that's trivially by-passable. It's just some js code that checks if you've scrolled past a limit and scrolls you back to the top if so. Anything that removes js from the content defeats it, including Firefox's built-in Reader View.

most paywalls are bypassed with * {overflow: auto; position: relative; }

Disabling JavaScript often works as well.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#166

Post by hobom »

cantrevealname wrote: post #161

Anyone remember Napster? There were extremely obscure musical recordings that were instantly found on Napster that are impossible to find even today. It took a long time for anyone to rebuild that data to the level of usefulness that Napster had. If Sci-Hub is forced to shut down due to legal pressure, technical problems, running out of money, or the founder losing interest, it would take a long time for anyone to du…

I think there was some reddit data hoarder initiative that did that a few months ago.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#168

Post by shagie »

breck wrote: post #129
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, of course. Do you really think drug cartels need the IPTO? Or that the opioid crisis couldn't possibly have happened if the opioids had been generics? Who has an IP monopoly on alcohol production? Is alcohol addition a huge problem, or not? Why do you believe tech monopolies rely specifically on patents and not on massive spending power, political leverage, and other influencing mechanisms? Do you not understand…

> Do you really think drug cartels need the IPTO? The legal ones do, absolutely. > Or that the opioid crisis couldn't possibly have happened if the opioids had been generics? "get an audience for our patent infringement suits so that we are feared as a tiger with claws, teeth and balls, and build some excitement with prescribers that OxyContin Tablets is the way to go." Richard Sackler in a 1996 email. I do not see O…

> On patents and copyrights. If we were to declare tomorrow that search engines did not have to respect copyright law, we would see far better search engines than Google in a year or less.

If copyright was abolished, the GPL and all open source would lose all its teeth.

The photographs that I took and have up on the web (all rights reserved) could be printed and sold without me seeing a dime.

The people who write books on here (and then have to fight to keep people from doing on demand pirating of them) would be given a big shrug when they try to go after them in court for copyright infringement.

---

Its possible to argue about the term of the copyrights on different media or the threshold for what is novel for a patent... but trying to remove copyrights completely disincentives people who are creating material that is protected with copyright from sharing their material.

And let's face it... you'd have to rewrite the constitution to get rid of them. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8.

> [The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

And they're right.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#169

Post by maroonblazer »

enriquto wrote: post #102
danuker wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know how to best support her. Any suggestions? My guess would be to donate to her. Near the bottom of the page is a BTC address (please check it yourself): https://sci-hub.do/ https://sci-hub.st/ https://sci-hub.se/ All the domains have the same address for me: 12PCbUDS4ho7vgSccmixKTHmq9qL2mdSns Money (and Bitcoin is among the freest money) can be used on whatever she needs.

Cool! Never used bitcoin, but that may be the first time if I figure out how to do it.

Me either. I took this opportunity to take the plunge.

I had a Coinbase account already from years ago but never linked it to any payment source. At the time the only options were my bank account, which didn't sit well with me.

Now PayPal is an option, which is also linked to my bank account, but the one level of indirection made me a bit less hesitant. Also, the combination of Coinbase and PayPal seems low(er) risk to me.

Re: Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?

#170

Post by cratermoon »

Some of the articles on sci-hub are so old that their copyright has expired, yet there's often no other source where you can find them without having to pay. I get that hosting and bandwidth cost money, but not $30 US per article money.

Aaron Swartz died for free access to research. Eight years later, Elbakyan continues his work.

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