
Aaron Swartz: Guerilla Open Access Manifesto - kanzure
http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=cefxMVAy
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kanzure
Science is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. In fact, it's right up
there next to the internet and the concept of the library. or books. I can't
help but feel like an alien to this world when I can't access papers. I think
we can do better for ourselves.

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confluence
Science is the greatest achievement of mankind.

It's not right up there. It _is_ there.

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jeffisabelle
I hate that I can't even access to `open access manifesto` in my country for
some stupid reason without manipulating my dns.

<http://imgur.com/gjNR4>

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kanzure
Holy crap, what?

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Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it
for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published
over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and
locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers
featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send
enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.

There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought
valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but
instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow
anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only
apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have
been lost.

That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the
work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the
folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite
universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s
outrageous and unacceptable.

“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights,
they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly
legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we
can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back.

Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you
have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge
while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally,
you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it
with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling
download requests for friends.

Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have
been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the
information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends.

But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called
stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral
equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t
immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to
let a friend make a copy.

Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they
operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the
politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the
exclusive power to decide who can make copies.

There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light
and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to
this private theft of public culture.

We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share
them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it
to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We
need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks.
We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.

With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message
opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past.
Will you join us?

Aaron Swartz July 2008, Eremo, Italy

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jeffisabelle
thanks for the copy/paste. I had the same reaction as you when I first saw
pastebin is blocked. (about a year ago)

I still don't know why it's blocked and they don't even care to give a reason
or explain what's going on.

we have seen worse things than pastebin. even `youtube` stayed blocked for
months.

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praxeologist
Easier to read: <http://pastebin.com/cefxMVAy>

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polarix
Amen, a thousand times amen.

