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JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

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Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#21

Post by 3327 »

jacoblyles wrote: post #16
Permit wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want them shut down or something? They can't legally do that. They've taken measures to try and get more articles out there in recent years for free: - Alumni are soon going to be able to freely access all articles. - Registered researches can access all articles for free. - Anyone can now read three articles every two weeks for free. Doing what you say would immediately shut down JSTOR and they couldn't conti…

I want a world where the scientific enterprise grows beyond academia. I want a world where the collective intelligence of humanity can be brought to bear on humanity's most important problems. I want a world where the conversation of science is conducted in indexible, searchable, linkable, accessible, and modifiable public media. Is JSTOR a friend or an enemy of my vision? Three articles every two weeks - sounds like…

"since JSTOR’s mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of scholarly knowledge. At the same time, as one of the largest archives of scholarly literature in the world, we must be careful stewards of the information entrusted to us by the owners and creators of that content"

I find this statement to be a lie. I agree with you @jacoblyles. I feel the same 100% and JSTOR is not a friend of science.

Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#22

Post by 3327 »

"since JSTOR’s mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of scholarly knowledge. At the same time, as one of the largest archives of scholarly literature in the world, we must be careful stewards of the information entrusted to us by the owners and creators of that content"

...

Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#24

Post by mscarborough »

slurry wrote: post #20
darrellsilver wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good call

Probably a good call. But "JSTOR killed a dude" will still be the internet's takeaway from this.

No, it may be your takeaway but 'the internet' doesn't have one assigned, much less society at large.

Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#25

Post by [deleted] »

Permit wrote: post #13
jacoblyles wrote: post #9

> "We will continue to work to distribute the content under our care as widely as possible" Hint: put the content on static HTTP server without an authentication system.

Do you want them shut down or something? They can't legally do that. They've taken measures to try and get more articles out there in recent years for free: - Alumni are soon going to be able to freely access all articles. - Registered researches can access all articles for free. - Anyone can now read three articles every two weeks for free. Doing what you say would immediately shut down JSTOR and they couldn't conti…

[deleted]

Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#26

Post by 3327 »

Permit wrote: post #13
jacoblyles wrote: post #9

> "We will continue to work to distribute the content under our care as widely as possible" Hint: put the content on static HTTP server without an authentication system.

Do you want them shut down or something? They can't legally do that. They've taken measures to try and get more articles out there in recent years for free: - Alumni are soon going to be able to freely access all articles. - Registered researches can access all articles for free. - Anyone can now read three articles every two weeks for free. Doing what you say would immediately shut down JSTOR and they couldn't conti…

oh yeah measures in recent years?

-the first point is not even rolled out

-there is no such thing as a registered researcher. The institution needs to register

-the last point you mention got rolled out only 5 days ago.

JSTOR has more negative than positives. I cannot think of one positive thing in this day and age about JSTOR. It should be open. Period. There hand will be forced someday and the great part is, as usual, it will be too late and they will be a history.

Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#27

Post by robotresearcher »

Permit wrote: post #17
jacoblyles wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a world where the scientific enterprise grows beyond academia. I want a world where the collective intelligence of humanity can be brought to bear on humanity's most important problems. I want a world where the conversation of science is conducted in indexible, searchable, linkable, accessible, and modifiable public media. Is JSTOR a friend or an enemy of my vision? Three articles every two weeks - sounds like…

>I want a world where the scientific enterprise grows beyond academia. I want a world where the collective intelligence of humanity can be brought to bear on humanity's most important problems. I want a world where the conversation of science is conducted in indexible, searchable, linkable, accessible, and modifiable public media. As lovely of an idea as that is, someone has to write the backend, design the front-end…

There are nearly 7 billion people in the world. I think between us we can manage to read more than 1.5 papers a week.

Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#29

Post by orionblastar »

Permit wrote: post #17
jacoblyles wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a world where the scientific enterprise grows beyond academia. I want a world where the collective intelligence of humanity can be brought to bear on humanity's most important problems. I want a world where the conversation of science is conducted in indexible, searchable, linkable, accessible, and modifiable public media. Is JSTOR a friend or an enemy of my vision? Three articles every two weeks - sounds like…

>I want a world where the scientific enterprise grows beyond academia. I want a world where the collective intelligence of humanity can be brought to bear on humanity's most important problems. I want a world where the conversation of science is conducted in indexible, searchable, linkable, accessible, and modifiable public media. As lovely of an idea as that is, someone has to write the backend, design the front-end…

Wasn't the whole thing that they allowed free unrestricted access to the JSTOR database from MIT IP addresses?

All Aaron Swartz did was jack into an Ethernet port in a closet that was unlocked in an MIT building, and get an IP address from an unsecured network at MIT, and then wrote some Python scripts to work as a web robot and pull down articles. The web robot did the same thing as any user at MIT could do, read and download papers.

So yes it is possible to allow free, unrestricted access, JSTOR just decides to only do that to certain IP ranges. If they allowed that with everyone, Aaron wouldn't have to jack his laptop into an unused open closet to pull articles.

In fact there was no real crime committed, other than trespassing at MIT, and MIT didn't press any charges to that effect.

Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz

#30

Post by tellarin »

kenko wrote: post #6
davidgerard wrote: post #3

The "creators" did not charge them with this responsibility.

Nevertheless, it is true that Jstor got out of the "hassle Aaron Swartz" game a long time ago, which is why they're able to post a message like this without it coming off as totally opportunistic. The prosecutors in the case can't exactly do the same.

Nor MIT.

Which actually surprised me a bit, due to the culture of hacks/pranks that used to be common over there.

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