https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/05/activists-mobilize-fight-censorship-and-save-open-science
Activists Mobilize to Fight Censorship and Save Open Science
BY RORY MIR
MAY 24, 2021
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Major publishers want to censor research-sharing resource Sci-Hub from the internet, but archivists are quickly responding to make that impossible.
More than half of academic publishing is controlled by only five publishers. This position is built on the premise that users should pay for access to scientific research, to compensate publishers for their investment in editing, curating, and publishing it. In reality, research is typically submitted and evaluated by scholars without compensation from the publisher. What this model is actually doing is profiting off of a restriction on article access using burdensome paywalls. One project in particular, Sci-Hub, has threatened to break down this barrier by sharing articles without restriction. As a result, publishers are going to every corner of the map to destroy the project and wipe it from the internet. Continuing the long tradition of internet hacktivism, however, redditors are mobilizing to create an uncensorable back-up of Sci-Hub.
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For example, there are federal bills like the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), or state bills such as California’s A.B. 2192, which can require government-funded research to be made freely available. The principle behind these bills is simple: if the public-funded the research, the public shouldn’t have to pay again to access it.
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Sounds like EFF has heard the “kittens” all in a row.
I’m going to make “my” politicians “aware” and get them to make the same rule as FAST and CA, if the taxpayers paid for it, then it should be OPEN!!!
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Reinke Faces Life 