From: "C.H.J. Hartgerink" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 03:32:12 -0500

One thing SciHub does thoroughly is provide public access to the
public domain. Making sure that all the works that are in the public
domain are accessible would be an alternative to what you call "Open
Access Piracy". IF we could identify what works are in the public
domain (copyright is an outright mess the closer to current day you
get). Note: for these PD works SciHub provides legal access (how they
get the content is another matter).

For example, articles from 1823 in the Lancet are still for sale
(technically legal) but this is clearly public domain so copying far
and wide is permitted (note the asserted copyright: this is illegal on
pub's end). Another example is those works by US federal gov
employees, which are uncopyrightable under 17 U.S. Code § 105. If
SciHub provides access to these even though original paywalled,
perfectly legal. It does highlight we as a scholarly system are
failing in ensuring the PD is as encompassing as it can be.

I am working on this with my pet project Liberate Science, so please
let me know if you are interested in ensuring public access to the
public domain. Libraries can play a major role in this (I spoke at
LIBER2016 about this  and the European librarians seemed responsive to
this idea as well).

Kind regards,
Chris Hartgerink


-------- Original Message --------
From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:19:28 -0500

For the record, SciHub does far more than provide "free access to
costly scholarly journals that libraries often buy." It also provides
access to journals that are not costly and it provides access to books
published by not-for-profit university presses, which are typically
subsidized by their parent institutions. It builds its database by
having users violate agreements for access with their institutions;
these credentials are then shared with SciHub. Talking about SciHub as
though it were Robin Hood is fatuous.

Joe Esposito

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 5:36 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Richard Feinman <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2017 20:01:46 -0500
>
> Authors' movement? Reviewers' movement? Librarians' movement?
> Authors' union? Reviewers' union? Librarians' union? Stopping a system
> of taking authors work, not paying reviewers and taking funds from
> users, authors, libraries for a minimal service. On second thought,
> who wants to start a publishing company? Maybe a joke or maybe we need
> author cooperatives.
>
> RDF
>
> = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
> Richard David Feinman
> Professor of Cell Biology
> SUNY Downstate Medical Center