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Sci-Hub Faces Millions Of Dollars In Damages, Elsevier Complaint Shuts Down Domain (torrentfreak.com)
Reader Taco Cowboy writes: Sci-Hub is facing millions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit filed by Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers. As a result of the legal battle the site just lost one of its latest domain names. However, the site has no intentions of backing down, and will continue its fight to keep access to scientific knowledge free and open. Several 'backup' domain names are still in play, including Sci-Hub.bz and Sci-Hub.cc. In addition to the alternative domain names users can access the site directly through the IP-address 31.184.194.81. Its TOR domain is also still working -- http://scihub22266oqcxt.onion/. Authorized or not, there is definitely plenty of interest in Sci-Hub's service. The site currently hosts more than 51 million academic papers and receives millions of visitors per month. Many visits come from countries where access to academic journals is limited, such as Iran, Russia or China. But even in countries where access is more common, many researchers visit the site, an analysis from Science magazine revealed last week. Late last month we learned that plenty of people were downloading academic papers from Sci-Hub. Over the 6 months leading up to March, Sci-Hub had served over 28 million documents, with Iran, China, India, Russia, and the United States being the leading requestors.
Fuck, Bill Gates will never do something like that. He uses his foundation (the largest charity on earth by like an order of magnitude) to enforce intellectual property regimes by refusing to fund any charity that buys medicines manufactured in-country without a patent license even when it is completely legal by that country's own laws. If you want Gates Foundation money, you gotta waste^H^H^H^H^H^H spend it on vastly over-priced drugs.
Well I am an academic at a public institution, and I sometimes have the same problems when I hit something my institution does not have a subscription for, or does not have access to a certain year (some journals we don't have before or after a particular year). Yeah, I can get ultimately get it if I want, but it's bullshit that I have to jump through hoops, or am expected to shell out money to do my work, just to get papers my tax dollars already paid for. All I want is what is mine. The people paid for this research, they should get access to it. Full stop, end of story, no exceptions, not next year, not when (if) the copyright expires, NOW. Copyright infringement is downloading something you did not pay for. This is not copyright infringement because you have in fact already payed for it. This is getting what you are owed, what you and I have already paid for through our taxes. Leeches like Elsevier and their ilk are the thieves who are stealing from us, not the other way around. Good on anyone who makes publically funded research rightfully available to the public.