Sci-Hub's Alexandra Elbakyan Receives EFF Award For Providing Access To Scientific Knowledge (torrentfreak.com) 14
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: The Electronic Frontier Foundation will award Alexandra Elbakyan, founder of the 'pirate' library Sci-Hub, for her efforts to provide access to scientific knowledge. According to EFF, Elbakyan's site is a vital resource for millions of students and researchers. Some medical professionals have even argued that the site helped to save lives. [...] "When I was working on my research project, I found out that all research papers I needed for work were paywalled. I was a student in Kazakhstan at the time and our university was not subscribed to anything," Alexandra told TorrentFreak years ago. Today, Sci-Hub continues to tear down academic paywalls but that comes at a cost. Sci-Hub has been sued several times and owes millions in damages to major publishers. In addition, Elbakyan also drew the attention of the FBI. Instead of throwing in the towel, Sci-Hub's founder continues to defend her ideals. They're a thorn in the side of major publishers, but on the other side of the debate, Elbakyan reaps praise.
This week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that Sci-Hub's founder will receive an award for her accomplishments in advancing access to scientific knowledge. EFF's awards are presented to people who have taken a leading role in the fight for freedom and innovation online. The previous winners include Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, Linux creator Linus Torvalds, and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. According to EFF, Elbakyan deserves the award as her life's work enables millions of people to access scientific knowledge that would otherwise exist beyond their financial reach. EFF also highlights that Elbakyan's work helps to challenge the current academic publishing system, where researchers are used as unpaid workhorses. "Sci-Hub is used by millions of students, researchers, medical professionals, journalists, inventors, and curious people all over the world, many of whom provide feedback saying they are grateful for this access to knowledge," said the EFF.
"Some medical professionals have said Sci-Hub helps save human lives; some students have said they wouldn't be able to complete their education without Sci-Hub's help."
This week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that Sci-Hub's founder will receive an award for her accomplishments in advancing access to scientific knowledge. EFF's awards are presented to people who have taken a leading role in the fight for freedom and innovation online. The previous winners include Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, Linux creator Linus Torvalds, and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. According to EFF, Elbakyan deserves the award as her life's work enables millions of people to access scientific knowledge that would otherwise exist beyond their financial reach. EFF also highlights that Elbakyan's work helps to challenge the current academic publishing system, where researchers are used as unpaid workhorses. "Sci-Hub is used by millions of students, researchers, medical professionals, journalists, inventors, and curious people all over the world, many of whom provide feedback saying they are grateful for this access to knowledge," said the EFF.
"Some medical professionals have said Sci-Hub helps save human lives; some students have said they wouldn't be able to complete their education without Sci-Hub's help."
Aaron Swartz? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been wondering for a long time--did some of those papers come from Aaron Swartz?
Re: (Score:2)
I think I read that that it mostly works because giving all drunk college students access basically results in an attack surface so huge it is impossible to defend. I Also know they have papers published long after the that whole thing.
What is the award? (Score:1)
How much cash? Or is it just an EFF sticker or something?
Cash extraction (Score:2)
The better question to ask is how much cash do Elsevier and friends extract from basically paywalling and slowing down global research ?
Hint: Knowledege, should be free, especially research results.
Thanks Alexandra! (Score:5, Interesting)
In anyone's wondering what all the fuss is about, this documentary explains: https://paywallthemovie.com/ [paywallthemovie.com]
Synopsis: "Paywall: The Business of Scholarship is a documentary which focuses on the need for open access to research and science. The film questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher, Elsevier, and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google."
Re: (Score:2)
Hey! :)
Science should be available only to wealthy people, and not to miscreants !
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I have mixed feelings (Score:5, Insightful)
1) the website that always show a picture of herself waving at the user. Even Apple does not show you a picture of Steven Jobs waving at you when you use their devices;
2) the fact there does not seem to be a community of developers behind the project "usually it's only me working on it" (I read it in one of her interviews, cannot find the source right now; it's consistent with her declarations that she wrote it herself https://www.theverge.com/2018/ [theverge.com]... ). There are reasons for certain aspects to remain secret to avoid jeopardizing the structure, but the features of the web interface could be developed on a software forge.
3) that she relates everything to political aspects. I respect her political views (she declares herself as Communist https://www.vox.com/2016/2/18/ [vox.com]... ) but people that want to push for large political changes worldwide (legalize knowledge sharing) and need the support of the wider public is cannot afford to antagonize a share of potential supporters because using wording that are negatively received in a large fraction of people who benefit from their services. There are plenty of charities that certainly have a lot of left- or right-leaning supporters by the nature of their activities, but are still very careful about not taking strong political stances in the open. Also finally, because the push for public domain has nothing to do with Communism, and the Soviet Union had copyright laws similar to those of the West had https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [wikipedia.org]...
A bit rich to complain about political views by making purely political statements. I've used sci-hub for years and never once seen a picture of or knew anything about the person responsible for it let alone their politics until today. I've assumed based on the iconography it was at least tangentially associated with Russia.
I agree sci-hub is invaluable resource and she deserves some recognition; but I have mixed feelings regarding her attitude in general;
In other words what you are really saying:
"After actively looking for it I've concluded I don't like that the person who runs the site has ideology different from my own."
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe it's just you. I went and enabled popups in my browser and didn't get one. I've never seen her picture before, and I've used scihub quite a bit. I assumed the scihub people were purposely anonymous. Her picture is indeed on her "about me" page. The horror.
Re: (Score:2)
Very useful resource (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm fortunate enough to have access to a very large academic library and paper system but *still* use sci-hub due to the ease of use. Why log in with multiple phone security checks or submit long library request forms when I can simply copy and paste.