
Sci-Hub and Alexandra Basic Information - stared
https://engineuring.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/sci-hub-and-alexandra-basic-information/
======
et2o
It should also be noted that Elbakyan has suffered personally from her
enormous contribution to science: she is currently living in fear of
extradition to the United States, where scientific publishers have obtained
several multi-million dollar judgments against her [Wikipedia].

~~~
comment_7171
The Wikipedia page says says she has had default judgments entered against her
in the United States for _civil_ offenses. If I am not mistaken extradition
requires _criminal_ offenses, and usually only a limited number of offenses
are deemed serious enough to be "extraditable". It also requires an
extradition treaty. Does her country of residence have an extradition treaty
with the United States?

A Nature article some years ago mentioned she has no assets in the United
States. The plaintiffs are therefore unlikely to ever collect any of the $15
million in damages.

~~~
rakoo
Even if she can't be extradited, she definitely cannot travel to the US, which
is a shame considering that most of what is happening in the digital space in
general is still there.

~~~
userbinator
A lot of others probably would rather _not_ visit the US even if they could,
given the current political climate and the whole security theater surrounding
the borders.

~~~
henryackerman
_raises hand_

I'd love to visit the US sometime, but right now I'd rather not go there for
the reasons you mentioned. The only exception would be if my job required it.

------
kqr
Another thing Sci-Hub gets right is UX: I have online access to many papers
through my uni, but it takes like 7 clicks, 4 redirects, and a minute of my
time to get there -- when the system works at its best! Through Sci-Hub, it
reliably takes one click and 5 seconds. Of course that's what I'm going to
use.

~~~
durability
Haha yeah. I’m also a researcher at a big uni and I do have legit access to
every relevant journal for me. If I need a new paper I do a google scholar
search first, and if it doesn’t say “pdf” but instead wants me to jump through
hoops to log in and download then I just hit my bookmarklet to get it from
scihub.

~~~
iamcreasy
Same here. I even use SciHub to get my own papers. It's way easier to get them
through SciHub then browsing through old file/folders.

------
steve19
Elbakyan is a hero, but it seems like if anything happens to her sci-hub will
die. Her writings in the past appear to make her seem she is at least a little
anti-social, so I don't hold out much hope of her creating a team.

As others have said, she has truly built a Library of Alexandria.

~~~
comment_7171
"... but it seems like if anything happens to her sci-hub will die."

This article in Science suggests otherwise:

[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-
pira...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-
papers-everyone)

"Even if arrested, Elbakyan says Sci-Hub will not go dark. She has failsafes
to keep it up and running, and user donations now cover the cost of Sci-Hub's
servers. She also notes that the entire collection of 50 million papers has
been copied by others many times already. "[The papers] do not need to be
downloaded again from universities.""

------
ChrisSD
It's amazing to think of this as mass civil disobedience across nations. And
unlike pirating movies, professionals in the field are tacitly supporting it,
if not outright advocating for it.

~~~
arkades
How can we not?

A new paper in my field recently came out regarding how to reduce patient
reliance on a particular med, with possibly better results for the patient.
The paper had data to back this up.

I couldn’t get it through my institutional subscription. I got it in 5 minutes
through sci-hub.

Why a tax-paying patient shouldn’t get up to date care from their tax paying
physician through data gathered and analyzed via their tax dollars is
baffling.

~~~
syedkarim
I'm surprised it took you five minutes. I usually see papers appear in five
seconds. The site is shockingly fast. Just append the DOI of the paper to the
domain and presto!

------
chmaynard
This is the ongoing saga of a brilliant female kicking a big dent in the
universe -- all by herself! Predictions of the demise of sci-hub are greatly
exaggerated. How do we know what steps she has taken to make sure sci-hub is
not totally dependent on her? Let's assume the best outcome, instead of the
worst.

~~~
gpm
Better to assume the worst, so that we can help her and retain access should
it come to it. E.g. better that people with the capability assume the worst
and make backups now than assume the best and we don't have a copy later.

~~~
confounded
Seed a torrent!

------
ridgeguy
Access to medical research articles through Sci-Hub has saved the lives of at
least two people whom I know.

Well done, Ms. Elbakyan.

~~~
smadsen
I would love to hear specifics if you can share them.

Personally, I've used articles obtained through Sci-Hub to guide my approach
to managing my own rare health condition. I wouldn't say it saved my life, but
I've found the information very useful in figuring out the relative merits of
new treatment options.

In particular, there is one specialty journal that's only available by
institutional subscription at a cost of more than $2,000 per year. The
publisher was particularly unhelpful in trying to find a way to enable access
for patients. So despite trying to do the right thing, I just go to Sci-Hub to
get this info.

------
hak8or
For those of us datahoarders, how large is sci hub? Surely it compresses
extremely well considering it's all human readable text? I would love to
mirror it via a torrent or on ipfs and whatnot, and I have a gigabit
connection with roughly 80TB of space I can throw at this.

~~~
radus
It's mostly composed of PDFs actually. Judging from my own library the average
publication is about 2 MB, and I believe about 1e8 publications are currently
indexed, so it's on the order of hundreds of TB.

~~~
emilfihlman
Either a) those pdfs contain images or other graphics that don't compress
easily or b) the text is not compressed.

~~~
gpm
Or c) The text is terribly compressed. Probably a lot of the "text" is also a
scan of text as well.

Could be an interesting project to try and make a sci-hub optimized
compression system.

~~~
Quiark
DejaVu format

------
raphlinus
Sci-hub is truly a modern-day Library of Alexandra. I hope the modern day
counterparts of Julius Caesar fail.

~~~
xtracto
We used to say the same thing about Gigapedia (later library.nu) and had the
same sentiment about Smiley (the admin).

And similarly about Grooveshark.

The truth is that, these types of things always come to an end. It is of
utmost importance and urgency for the Sci-hub infrastructure to be made
distributed and resilient.

This make me thing, could it be possible to set up a Smart Contract in some
blockchain to achieve a similar thing? (I understand that this works by using
user/passwords provided by some people, so it may not be feasible given the
easiness to look at the information). That way the system will be very
resilient given the nature of blockchain.

Nevertheless, I think I give more merit to Library Genesis. Even though the
concept of Sci-Hub is very good, it is mainly a proxy... whereas Library
Genesis actually is saving human knowledge.

~~~
clydethefrog
what.cd is a similar example in the music department.

~~~
AnaniasAnanas
what.cd was private and invite only though with strict seeding policies.

------
apo
> There a people though, who create mirrors of Sci-Hub articles database. I
> run a few mirrors and other mirrors are run independently, and Sci-Hub also
> uses accounts to access library resources provided by others.

I haven't found anything about setting up a mirror. Is there a link somewhere
explaining how?

~~~
Mikhail_K
Library Genesis provides torrents
[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/repository_torrent/](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/repository_torrent/)
and usenet
[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/repository_nzb/](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/repository_nzb/)
downloads of their full database. They also give away the source code for
their user interface
[http://libgen.io/libgen/code/](http://libgen.io/libgen/code/) Setting a
mirror is trivial if you have a server with sufficient disk space and basic
Unix admin skills

------
prfnv
Here is Alexandra's bio in her own words. [https://sci-
hub.tw/alexandra](https://sci-hub.tw/alexandra)

tl;tr/ cannot read Russian

The west treated Alexandra badly. Russia will never give up Alexandra.
Alexandra is a true hero. Alexandra, alone, has done more for opening up the
science more than all Open Access activists combined.

~~~
valgor
>Alexandra, alone, has done more for opening up the science more than all Open
Access activists combined.

This is the difference between reformist and revolutionaries.

------
xorand
"Sci-Hub started by accident, there was no Big Plan behind it. After a couple
of months, users asked to add some option to donate and help the project."
These are the signs of a really great project. Much needed.

------
__blockcipher__
I've lost count of how many articles I've been paywalled from accessing but
ended up getting through sci-hub.

I have gotten so much utility from it that I have donated a number of times.

Frustratingly there's still certain papers that I've failed to find. Random
example:
[http://jddonline.com/articles/dermatology/S1545961612P0742X/...](http://jddonline.com/articles/dermatology/S1545961612P0742X/1).
I even tried paying for access to this journal and weirdly none of my credit
cards worked. So, it's not always even an issue of "oh you're just not willing
to spend money".

It is shocking to me how much quality research is gated behind paywalls and
thus hardly ever sees the light of day. The scientific ideals (or perhaps
enlightenment ideals?) of free distribution of knowledge and community
collaboration are completely forgotten. Academic science has been made a
complete mockery.

/end rambling semi incoherent rant

~~~
UncleSlacky
You can always try asking on Twitter with the hashtag "#icanhazpdf" \- it's
worked for me:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICanHazPDF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICanHazPDF)

------
godelmachine
I regard Alexandra as one of the prolific geniuses of our time and a hero that
world needs right now.

Have benefitted immensely from Sci-Hub. I wanna contribute to their cause but
currently they only accept bitcoins.

I am from India. Does anyone know how else can I contribute? Online bank
transfer is my preferred route. Also, I don’t have an account on PayPal.

~~~
lucb1e
How is bitcoin not an option for you? You can buy it with virtually every
possible payment method online that I know of, and if you prefer offline, you
can buy it in the streets as well.

If you can find a way to get some euros on my bank or PayPal, I'd be happy to
send you coins.

~~~
godelmachine
When bitcoin was a thing last year, there was crackdown by financial
regulators in India on many bitcoin users.

I admit I don’t understand the full technicalities but it’s better to err on
the side of caution and stay away from it.

Hence, direct bank online transfer.

~~~
lucb1e
Why though? If they see BTC as goods then it's the same as buying a piano; if
it's currency then it's the same as buying euros. Is either of those things
illegal in India?

Also I assume this would be a small amount, not something that would have a
tax impact regardless of whether it's a good or currency.

~~~
godelmachine
As valid as your arguments are, I wouldn't like to mess with India's version
of Internal Revenue Service, no sir :)

They have already outlawed bitcoin publicly. That's their official stand.

~~~
lucb1e
Alright, thanks for sharing your situation! (hope that's the right word)

------
tfehd
[https://engineuring.wordpress.com/2018/07/07/why-sci-hub-
is-...](https://engineuring.wordpress.com/2018/07/07/why-sci-hub-is-illegal-
and-what-you-can-do-about-it/)

 _When Sci-Hub became known, I thought that it will provide a good case
against copyright law. When the law prevents science to develop, that law must
be repealed._

 _Nothing of that happened. Instead, Sci-Hub was quickly banished as an
‘illegal’_

------
mirimir
Great article! She is indeed a hero (or heroine, if you prefer).

------
gumby
sci-hub has made a meaningful difference to my life. I hope Elbakyan survives
her trevails.

~~~
sjfbo
Same, and few days ago my native country blocked the website and mirrors.
Hopefully I'm living somewhere else now, but still, it makes me angry.

------
ohbleek
I truly hope she is able to find others she can work with in order to maintain
and build Sci-Hub. She is an inspiration and a great example to those of us
that believe in the ideals of transparency, freedom, and the pursuit of truth
through science.

------
return0
a must for your bookmarks toolbar:

    
    
        javascript:window.location='http://sci-hub.tw/'+window.location

------
celticninja
This is an excellent resource to understand sci-hub's genesis.

------
steve19
I wish billionaire do-gooders like Gates or Buffet buy Elsevier etc. set the
knowledge free and restructure how they do business. Sadly this would cost a
fortune. RELX, the owner of Elsevier has a market cap of $42 billion. Can a
51% owner a company torpedo its business model without being sued by the other
49%?

~~~
_emacsomancer_
I think evaluating Gates as a do-gooder is somewhat inaccurate. His charitable
actions all seem to align to increase his stock portfolio. And not only would
open-sourcing scientific knowledge not likely help his stock portfolio, but it
is antithetical to everything he has ever done in the software world.

What really needs to be done is more and more editors and editorial boards of
Elsevier-owned journals revolting, as happened with Lingua, the prominent
linguistics journal, where the entire editorial board resigned and started the
Open Access journal Glossa. (Lingua lingers on as a 'zombie journal', filled
with articles of very dubious quality. But everyone in the field knows this.)

~~~
syshum
What really needs to be done is the government needs to require all research
that is funded at all with tax payer money (which is the vast majority of
research) must be open access to all

~~~
mattkrause
They already do.

Here are links to the major US funding agency's policies.

NIH Public Access Policy:
[https://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm](https://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm)

NSF:
[https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/public_access/](https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/public_access/)

DOE:
[https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/08/f18/DOE_Publ...](https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/08/f18/DOE_Public_Access%20Plan_FINAL.pdf)

DoD: [https://discover.dtic.mil/products-
services/](https://discover.dtic.mil/products-services/)

PubMedCentral
([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/)) hosts
full-text for biomedical journals that don't automatically provide un-
paywalled access to covered articles, as does DTIC. The one caveat is that
there is an optional one year embargo for journals that aren't open access.

You can often find PDFs on researchers' home pages, and preprints are
increasingly common too.

~~~
killjoywashere
Wait, on at least one axis, the DoD is less evil than the Elsevier? Oh, how
the tables turn...

------
tzs
What percent of Sci-Hub is research papers or other publicly funded material,
and what percent is more general, not publicly funded material, such as
articles from popular science magazines like "Scientific American"?

~~~
_emacsomancer_
Certainly what people go on Sci-Hub to get are research papers.

------
user764743
I think one of the best way to shield her against threats would be to host
thousands of sci-hub mirrors. How hard can this be done considering the size
of the whole site?

------
OrgNet
How many terabytes is Sci-Hub today?

~~~
kevingrahl
~70TB

------
voldacar
Where does sci-hub actually get the papers from in the first place?

~~~
Liber-Abaci
It's a proxy service that uses university credentials for access direct from
the publisher(s) [https://engineuring.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/some-facts-
on-s...](https://engineuring.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/some-facts-on-sci-hub-
that-wikipedia-gets-wrong/)

I would assume graduate students around the world pass them to her to use and
she just starts up a VPN to imitate the location of the university. That said
it's not like these publishers are losing money, universities are still paying
for the access like they always were. Plebs such as myself could always get a
free copy of some paper by requesting a printout from the campus library just
now I do it from my phone instead.

------
londons_explore
> I was interested in politics and always supported communism.

I wonder if this simple statement will change people's views on the project.

~~~
sireat
Maybe for some but this explains her motivation.

Communism as a pure ideology is just as appealing to some as pure
Libertarianism is to some others.

Arguably this is better motivation than that of one Kim Dotcom and on par with
Aaron Schwartz.

As long as she is not actively involved in politics she is worthy of support.

~~~
AsyncAwait
> As long as she is not actively involved in politics she is worthy of
> support.

One of the most effective ways of changing the broken system would be for her
to get involved in politics. Yes, she's a communist, the current political
spectrum around the world is almost wholly dominated by capitalists, (yes,
even in China).

Having a few high-profile communists would certainly do no harm.

------
lambdadmitry
There is another difference with Aaron Swartz: I'm not sure if Aaron would
block access for a whole country over petty squabbles. [1] TL;DR: a few
grateful scientists named a newly discovered bug in her honour, she took
offence and banned Russian IP's as a form of collective punishment.

I find the whole story deeply fascinating, because it's a rare case when a
person of very questionable moral values (I believe most people here would
find her behaviour and views reprehensible) does unequivocal good to the
society. It's so easy to fall into the trap of black-and-white hero narrative,
but sometimes reality is just more gray and weird.

[1]: [https://medium.com/@alexandraborissova/sci-hub-banned-in-
rus...](https://medium.com/@alexandraborissova/sci-hub-banned-in-russia-by-
its-founder-citing-bulling-by-liberal-81feca464863)

~~~
syshum
>>>because it's a rare case when a person of very questionable moral values (I
believe most people here would find her behaviour and views reprehensible)

What behaviour? Blocking Russian IP's or releasing data to all?

I find the blocking of Russian IP's to be petty, which I believe she backed
down from but then had the ISP in Russia start banning the site.

I dont think it raised to "reprehensible"

Now if you mean ignoring Copyright law, and releasing copyrighted works to the
world, I do not find that in anyway reprehensible, I am universally anti-
copyright and do not believe it should exist at all

~~~
vixen99
Not a tenable position unless you qualify it. It amounts to saying here should
be no protection for those whose work output just happens to consist of
copyable material?

~~~
nicoburns
It's not a position I agree with, but I think it is tenable. A lit of good
could come from allowing everything to be freely copied.

------
rdl
Thank you Kazakh government for causing Sci-Hub to exist. All we need to do is
get anonymous ecash added and we'll have a perfect information market.

