What are Sci-Hub and LibGen?
“Libgen and Sci-Hub are a shadow library which enables free access to millions of books and research papers without any regard to copyright, by bypassing publishers paywalls in various ways. Libgen and Sci-hub do not make any profits out of their services. They are a result of the ‘open access movement’.” Almost everyone in academia knows of Libgen and Sci-Hub and uses them. Libgen was originated because of the underground samizdat culture in the Soviet Union. Its founders are unknown. Sci-hub was founded by Alexandra Elbakyan also known as “Science’s Pirate Queen” in 2011 in Kazakhstan.” She created Sci-hub to help people who cannot afford to pay for research papers. She remains in hiding as she fears extradition.
The Case pending in Delhi HC against Libgen and Sci-Hub
In December 2020, Elsevier, Wily, and American Chemical Society– three major publishing houses–moved to the Delhi High Court against Alexandra Elbakyan and the website Libgen. “They made an appeal for a permanent injunction against them for copyright infringement by “unauthorized hosting, reproducing, distributing, making available to the public and slash or communicating to the public, or facilitating the same, of the original works owned by the plaintiffs”. They are requesting the court to block access to Sci-hub and Libgen. The plaintiffs are raising issues of data protection and phishing attacks.”[1]
In response to Delhi High Court’s injunction, Elbakyan had stopped uploading new papers to Sci-hub, she had ignored all previous court orders, but in this case, she is optimistic about the verdict. “According to her counsel, the undertaking expired on March 8, 2021, when the court met last and did not extend it any further.”[2] This is the first time Elbakyan is getting legal representation in a country. Alexandra celebrated Sci-Hub’s 10th anniversary this year by uploading 2.3 million new research papers. Three organizations and more than a dozen scientists including a virologist and an astrophysicist have become parties to this case through intervention application. This is a landmark case as it will have an impact on millions of academics, researchers and scholars. It will also have a significant impact on intellectual property rights law in India.
Alexandra Elbakyan’s viewpoint
She recently issued a statement on Twitter while reacting to Nature’s article ‘What Sci-Hub’s recent court battle means for Research’, where she says, “Regarding the safety of university and personal data that is a bunch of empty words, that sounds dangerous, but have no content of evidence behind them. How exactly Sci-Hub can damage any university or a person by downloading academic papers. Do they have any actual case when Sci-Hub somehow compromised the security of any library or a person? Any person that complained about credentials that were stolen from them? Or is it again, nothing more but empty accusations. Nobody is complaining about compromised security except academic publishers. It is touching to see how caring they are about others. Except, that they do not care at all about millions of people who cannot access science because they do not have money.”[3]
Why Sci-Hub and Libgen are important for academia?
Most of the researchers and authors have to pay to get their work published without getting any royalty for any purchase, the readers pay to read those papers and the only one making money is the publishing house. The question is why do readers have to pay to see a piece of information produced by an unpaid author. Some authors even have to pay the publishers to gain access to their work.
As former Library Director of Harvard University, Professor Robert Darnton would say, “We faculty do the research, write the papers, referee papers by other researchers, serve on editorial boards- all of it for free and then we have to buy back the results of our labour at outrageous prices.”[4] If an author wants to mark their work ‘Open Access’ and still want to submit it to a journal, then they have to pay for it upfront, so that the reader doesn’t have to. Publishers such as Elsevier do ensure certain quality standards, it seems that it doesn’t cost them all that much to do that. Elsevier’s 2018 profit margin of 38%, places its way above all big tech companies like Amazon, Google and Apple, and has been constant for years.
Big corporate publishing houses have monopolised knowledge and information for years. If the average citizen can’t afford access to legitimate information, he might turn to unreliable sources of information as misinformation is freely available on the Internet. Since most of the research is funded by public institutions, which are run by taxpayer’s money, it must be made accessible to everyone. Knowledge must be freely accessible to educate and elevate science. As Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”[5]
Conclusion
Sites like Sci hub and Libgen has been very important tool for new inventions. There are many doctors and medical professionals who use Sci-Hub to read about new developments in medical science to treat their patients. Libgen, which provides millions of books free of cost, has been a blessing for students in India who are voracious readers but can’t afford to buy expensive books. Users of Sci-hub end Libgen say that these sites are very convenient to use and save a lot of time. Sci-hub and Libgen help millions of scholars and researchers all over the world. It becomes a necessity in a third world country like India where the quality of education is poor and students mostly rely on free resources available online. India has one of the largest user bases of Sci-Hub end Libgen. Not everyone can afford to pay thousands on a scientific research paper. Gatekeeping valuable information can have a crippling effect on the development of the country. Open and unrestricted sources of research and data need to be protected at all costs. Libgen and Sci-Hub have and will always prove to be revolutionary in the field of academics and research.
Author(s) Name: Shifa Fatima (Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh)
References:
[1] Sukrita Baruah, ‘Indian Express’ (Hardbook: Copyright vs Wrong — The Sci-Hub case being fought in Delhi’, 29 September, 2021) <https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-high-court-academicians-scientists-researchers-7536252/ > 18 December, 2021
[2] Sidharth Singh, ‘Newslaundry’ (Will Indian Researchers lose free access to scientific papers?’, September 18, 2021 <https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/09/18/will-indian-researchers-lose-free-access-to-scientific-papers> 19 December, 2021
[3] Ernesto Van Der Sar, ‘Torrent Freak’ (Sci-Hub Founder: Academic Publishers are the Real threat to Science’, December 18, 2021) <https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-founder-academic-publishers-are-the-real-threat-to-science-not-sci-hub/> December 19,2021
[4] Raja Singh, ‘The Wire’ (Sci-Hub: Journals must stop exploiting Research for profits’, October 6,2021) <https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/sci-hub-journals-must-stop-exploiting-research-for-profits/> 18 December, 2021
[5] Universal Declaration of Human Rights (General Assembly Resolution 217A, 1948)
