Sci-Hub, a Site With Open and Pirated Scientific Papers

lpress writes: Sci-Hub is a Russian site that seeks to remove barriers to science by providing access to pirated copies of scientific papers. It was established in 2011 by Russian neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, who could not afford papers she needed for her research and it now claims to have links to 48 million pirated and open papers. I tried it out and found some papers and not others, but it provides an alternative for researchers who cannot afford access to paid journals. After visiting this site, one cannot help thinking of the case of Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide as a result of prosecution for his attempt to free scientific literature.

Comments

At least the summary is realistic about Swartz.

[Anonymous Coward]

the case of Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide

At least the summary is realistic about this incident, and refers to it as a suicide.

I'm always astounded when this matter comes up at a place like Hacker News, and they twist it into "the state" or "the prosecutor" somehow being responsible for what Swartz voluntarily to himself, completely on his own. It's like his fanatics are trying to convert a suicide into some weird "murder" where the alleged "murderer" was not involved in any way. The delusion these people suffer from is just absurd.

Re:At least the summary is realistic about Swartz.

[jenningsthecat]

The social justice/political correctness crowd does indeed suffer from a strange obsession of erasing any sense of self-responsibility for individual decisions...

I'm not sure I'd characterize myself as a member of the "social justice/political correctness crowd", but I'll include myself for the sake of argument. I really don't see that we're interested in "erasing any sense of self-responsibility for individual decisions" - rather, we're dedicated to holding responsible those who contribute to those destructive choices through their own malice, incompetence, abuse of power, self-righteousness, or contributory negligence.

which comes in line with their hate of meritocracy, and finding reasons to blame anyone else...

"(H)ate of the meritocracy? Really? You actually believe that we live in a meritocracy? Are you blind, or wilfully self-deluded, or are you simply trolling? Donald Trump has a lot of wealth and power, and a good chance of becoming POTUS. Do you really think it was "merit" that got him there? Wake up.

...their own dumb decisions

When one is living in pain and despair and sees no way out, the ability to look at things rationally and to maintain enough hope to survive can utterly disappear. When you characterize it as "dumb", you highlight your own shallowness, lack of sophistication, and lack of compassion. Is that why you posted AC?

Re:At least the summary is realistic about Swartz.

[penguinoid]

Yeah, generally when someone is held captive and threatened with 50 years of torture, then for mysterious reasons decides to commit suicide, it's not like the people holding him captive and threatening to torture him for 50 years are at all responsible.

Re:At least the summary is realistic about Swartz.

[nbauman]

they twist it into "the state" or "the prosecutor" somehow being responsible for what Swartz voluntarily to himself

A prosecutor has the power to really fuck up somebody's life. A criminal defense costs so much that families mortgage their homes -- just to stay out of jail. The defendant has this threat hanging over them for years.

And a prosecutor has complete discretion about whether or not to bring a case. Sometimes they weasel out of it by saying, "I'm simply following the law." Sometimes they admit it and say, "I'm using the law creatively."

America, as you've probably heard, has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and arguably the most punitive "tough on sentencing" system. We send people to jail for 10 and 20 years for minor crimes that used to be misdemeanors before the war on crime.

This is one you can blame on the Democrats and Republicans. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both led the country in tough-on-crime rhetoric, although most incarceration is on the state level.

So yeah, if the cops arrest someone for some bullshit like making a turn without signaling far enough in advance, and the prosecutor decides to prosecute that person for it, and the person gets so depressed in jail that he kills himself -- I think the cop and the prosecutor are directly responsible for that death.

Adam Swartz seemed to be a situation like that. A sadistic prosecutor who just wants to put someone in jail to get notches on her bed.

Re:Entitled

[rdwulfe]

The problem with your straw-man is that MOST of the research referenced is often done on the public dime, then hidden away behind pay walls instead of given to the general public, who as stated, paid for it.