"Careful stewardship" is the next neighbour to censorship.
JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
41–50 of 69 posts
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#42"To that end, Aaron returned the data he had in his possession and JSTOR settled any civil claims we might have had against him in June 2011." Reminds me of that spider drawing comic [0]. [0] http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html
Seriously. The use of the word "returned" reeks of the same technological backwardness that has hobbled the music industry. Just as it is nonsensical to say that copying files constitutes "stealing", it is nonsensical to say that one can "return" copied files. You can delete them, and that's about it. However, I don't think JSTOR is technologically backwards, but their use of that word reveals a very measured, legali…
This was exactly my thought. The use of "returned" reveals a clinging to a lie that's still lurking in the background.
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 an…
>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. I'm not talking about hosting or downloading. I'm talking about the digitization of documents and to pay the salaries of their ~200 staff.
~200 staff? Sounds like an awful lot. And I imagine the front end and backed are kinda done now so after a couple of devs maintaining the system, a sys admin or two, some testers, hr and ceo that leaves ~190 scanning in the documents. Or am I oversimplifying this?
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#44Earlier 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…
> As lovely of an idea as that is, someone has to write the backend, design the front-end, scan tens of thousands of documents and provide full-text search for them.
I volunteer, where do I sign up?
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 an…
>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. I'm not talking about hosting or downloading. I'm talking about the digitization of documents and to pay the salaries of their ~200 staff.
So, you're saying that the final versions of the paper are not available in digital form pre-press? That's not meshing with what I know about how academic publishing works.
If jstor is digitizing papers from before the pdf era then that's fine but those papers produced today are all available in digital format long before they get to jstor.
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#46In the Swartz case, I have to say that JSTOR acted professionally and did the right thing. They saw someone stealing their data. They reached out to the authorities to help stop the theft. Swartz returned the data, and JSTOR agreed not to pursue (civil) legal action against him. It's unfortunate that the US government couldn't match JSTOR's level of reasonableness. Yes, Swartz did something illegal, but the time (~35…
> Swartz returned the data
This... sounds super fishy.
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#47Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#48In the Swartz case, I have to say that JSTOR acted professionally and did the right thing. They saw someone stealing their data. They reached out to the authorities to help stop the theft. Swartz returned the data, and JSTOR agreed not to pursue (civil) legal action against him. It's unfortunate that the US government couldn't match JSTOR's level of reasonableness. Yes, Swartz did something illegal, but the time (~35…
>Yes, Swartz did something illegal,
The government has yet to prove that. Many with better access to the facts than I have said that Aaron acted within the letter of the law but was being inconsiderate: like hogging all the free shrimp at a cocktail party.
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#49> "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…
>Do you want them shut down or something? They can't legally do that
Why not? And more importantly, why couldn't "putting themselves out of business" be their goal?
Most of us have no problem if on-line solutions disrupt private sector business. But we get all gooey and stupid when it's a not-for-profit, like they get a pass because they're supposedly doing good.
Frankly, if you can't service the needs of society, then you deserve to be made irrelevant. JSTOR should be able to process and index academic journals without six-figure salaries and Manhattan offices.
Re: JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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. I'm not talking about hosting or downloading. I'm talking about the digitization of documents and to pay the salaries of their ~200 staff.
~200 staff? Sounds like an awful lot. And I imagine the front end and backed are kinda done now so after a couple of devs maintaining the system, a sys admin or two, some testers, hr and ceo that leaves ~190 scanning in the documents. Or am I oversimplifying this?
Not really. Compare their operating budget with Project Gutenberg.