OH SAY CAN YOU SEEEEEE!!
FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
241–250 of 272 posts
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#24215-20 years and science still hasn't solved the publishing problem. Shameful, or a sign of times
Publishing is not the problem since we have the internet. The problem is the botched science career system, how performance of academics/researchers is evaluated, how anybody beneath the tenured academic is exploited. Publishing is just a decoy from this much larger problem.
By publishing i meant editing, which is the only bit missing. How hard is it for major research associations to create publicly funded editorial boards to coordinate the (already free) authorship and reviewing
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eyes wide open and all that but civil disobedience is a thing.
Do what's right, whether it's legal or not.
In Germany you'll get sued very quickly for offering others' copyrighted content, there's a whole industry there of lawyers mailing you that you've violated their clients' (copyright holders) rights but if you pay the around 1000 Euroes "damages" and sign a letter agreeing to not violate their rights again it'll go away. If they catch you seeding/uploading a part of another of their copyrighted content, then they'll ask for even more money.
So if you think seeding is the right thing, you'll probably end up really broke and unable to pay your bills there.
The other side of this are lawyers profiting off people who get these letters and charging money for basically copy-pasted emails on how to respond.
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
A better question to ask is - when researchers can publish anywhere (including open source journals) they choose to publish in journals with paid access.
That's not really a question. But if you ask why they choose to, they mostly don't have that much choice. Often, rules say "publish in magazine with impact factor at least X" and that's it. The publishers are the gatekeepers of that.
So what the journals provide in exchange for money is impact factor?
And what do you mean “gatekeeper”? It’s their journal and they created the impact factor, no?
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#245What I find the most fascinating is that a single person, possibly with the help of a few select others, is able to curate, index, host, and serve 85% of scholarly literature[0] which otherwise would be inaccessible to many. 80 million papers are available on Sci-Hub to its half a million daily users.[1] That is around 80 TB of data, and 2 TB of daily outbound traffic.[2] Given the fact that Sci-Hub has achieved all…
It also shed some light on the inefficiency / inefficacy of most production groups .. a few persons with a real motive ended up doing more than many large companies.
Nothing new, it's obvious to many how much drag and cruft lies in the majority of businesses in the world.
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#246I'm not sure I understand the concept of paid access to scientific research, so I'd be grateful if someone with more knowledge of the topic could explain it to me. Governments fund universities, people donate large amounts of money to universities, and a large portion of the population has student debt because of how expensive tuition is. Why are they charging for access to research at these institutions then?
You are completely right that the current system is nonsense. It only exists, because back in the day there was no internet. Scientists needed publishers that would print and distribute scientific results. But publishers might deny publication in their journals if they thought the science is not good enough. Thereby the publishers established a reputation system. For example, it is really hard to get a scientific pap…
It's an important topic that I see in many places.
Old system had to certify a certain level of quality to exist due to structural constraints (fragile business, cost of production/operation). Now that the costs are fading away, the danger is to end up like bad social networks who just do whatever because it's free and people waste years until it's obvious it doesn't provide any value anymore.
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#247Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seeding copyrighted content? No, not legal.
That's true. Putting tax funded research studies behind corporate paywalls also is in many contexts and jurisdictions. But it's funny how that one doesn't ever get prosecuted.
In what jurisdictions is elsevier breaking the law?
I think the way intellectual property law works is bad, but afaik they are operating within the law as it stands now.
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. The horrible phrase is 'copyright transfer agreement', which is typically a condition of being published. My experience is that the better journals are more of an arse about copyright. I've just written two book chapters and spent maybe a day getting permissions to reuse published figures, sometimes including my own (!) in other works.
On the other hand, publishers have very little power when it comes to enforcing their copyrights when the author of an article decides to make it available on their personal web page. I have never met a researcher who refused to provide a copy of a paper when asked, despite technically violating a copyright by doing so. Academic publishers know that if they start threatening researchers they are playing with fire --…
Some journals’ copyright assignments have explicit carve-outs for authors to distribute their own work.
Re: FBI subpoenaed Apple for data of Sci-Hub founder
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
By her own words, in creating and maintaining Sci-Hub, Elbakyan was driven by communist ideals: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc850001 https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc920674 Interesting to observe how it overlaps with this conception of the hacker spirit. If only the world had many more Alexandra Elbakyans, and fewer Elseviers. Humanity as a whole would be a lot better off without th…
Yeah, like that horrible capitalist company that funded the research lab which invented the transistor, Unix and C. We'd be so much better off without it out its 'capitalist, profit-driven creations'. (AT&T, Bell labs) /s
The counter point to this is DARPA and the dearth of private research going on currently.