From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>> Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2018 16:34:15 -0400 The complaint can be found here: https://www.infodocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/acs_elsevier_rgate.pdf US District Court -- District of Maryland Begins : 1. This action arises from the massive infringement of peer-reviewed, published journal articles (“PJAs”). Plaintiffs publish the articles in their journals and own the respective copyrights. Defendant deliberately uses infringing copies of those PJAs to drive its business. 2. Founded in 1876, Plaintiff ACS is an internationally renowned professional and scientific society. It publishes over 50 peer-reviewed scientific journals, primarily in the field of chemistry and related disciplines. Founded in 1880, Plaintiff Elsevier is an international multimedia publishing company. Elsevier publishes hundreds of thousands of articles annually in over 2,500 peer-reviewed journals it maintains. Founded in 2008, Defendant ResearchGate is a for-profit business that owns and operates an online social network and file sharing / download service. Each is aimed at scientists, researchers and related professionals and located on ResearchGate’s website at http://ResearchGate.net (the “RG Website”). 3. This lawsuit focuses on ResearchGate’s intentional misconduct vis-à-vis its online file-sharing / download service, where the dissemination of unauthorized copies of PJAs constitutes an enormous infringement of the copyrights owned by ACS, Elsevier and other journal publishers. The lawsuit is not about researchers and scientists collaborating; asking and answering questions; promoting themselves, their projects, or their findings; or sharing research findings, raw data, or pre-prints of articles. 4. ResearchGate’s infringing activity is no accident. Infringing copies of PJAs are a cornerstone to ResearchGate’s growth strategy. ResearchGate deliberately utilizes the infringing copies to grow the traffic to its website, its base of registered users, its digital content, and its revenues and investment from venture capital. ResearchGate knows that the PJAs at issue cannot be lawfully uploaded to and downloaded from the RG Website. Nevertheless, in violation of the rights of ACS, Elsevier, and others, ResearchGate uploads infringing copies of PJAs and encourages and induces others to do so. ResearchGate finds copies of the PJAs on the Internet and uploads them to computer servers it owns or controls. In addition, ResearchGate lures others into uploading copies of the PJAs, including by directly asking them to do so, encouraging use of a “request full-text” feature, and misleadingly promoting the concept of “selfarchiving.” ResearchGate is well aware that, as a result, it has turned the RG Website into a focal point for massive copyright infringement. [AND SO ON]