From: "Jean-Claude Guédon" <[log in to unmask]> To Richard, calling Sci-hub a form of civil disobedience is ludicrous; to others like me, it is conceivable. Only time will tell. But civil disobedience is not the only available metaphor. Perhaps it is a form of direct action, or of guerrilla warfare. Many images are available to apprehend such a situation. Robin Hood is another possibility (http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/a-pirate-bay-for-science ). For those who are interested in how Alexandra Elbakyan characterizes Sci-hub, check: https://engineuring.wordpress.com/2016/02/24/why-sci-hub-is-the-true-solution-for-open-access-reply-to-criticism/ Whether Sci-hub is civil disobedience, guerrilla warfare, Robin Hood-style redistribution, etc. or not is really beside the point. The point is that Sci-hub exists and, apparently, it is difficult to shut it down. Whatever anyone may think about it and what it means, it exists. In such a situation, there are only two possible attitudes: learn to live with it, or try destroying it. The latter, at least for the moment, appears difficult. Collectively, we should certainly reflect on what is motivating a large number of people finding deep faults with the present system of scientific communication and trying to correct these faults in a variety of ways. Some of these ways may be more controversial or less acceptable than others, but even they do not affect the validity of the complaints about the situation. Gandhi achieved the independence of India through non-violent means, and that is why he is justly celebrated, but the bottom line was the independence of India, not Gandhi's non-violent tactics. -- Jean-Claude Guédon Professeur titulaire Littérature comparée Université de Montréal Le dimanche 06 mars 2016 à 12:53 -0500, LIBLICENSE a écrit : From: Richard <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2016 08:29:49 -0500 re. item 4: can we please stop pretending that raiding publishers to provide free content in order to relieve researchers of the burden of having to place ILL requests is in any way comparable to MLK or Ghandi? It is a ludicrous comparison Richard