What the academic publishing world calls "theft", the rest of us call "research". Why Sci-Hub is so popular.

Because it works. It delivers information and knowledge to those who need it.

Because information and knowledge are public goods. As CUNY/GC says, an "increasingly unpopular idea",1,2 but an absolutely correct one.

Because it democratises information.

Because much the world cannot afford to pay US/EU/JP/AU prices for content. Including many of those in the US/EU/JP/AU. And most certainly virtually all outside. Billions and billions of people.

Because the research is (often) publicly funded, conducted in public institutions, and meant for the public.

Because information and markets simply don't work. Deadweight losses from restricted access and perverse incentives for publication both taint the system.

Because much the content, EVERYTHING published before 1962, would have been public domain under the copyright law in force at the time, and much up through 1976 and the retrospective extensions of copyright it, and multiple subsequent copyright acts, have created.

Because 30% profit margins are excessive by any measure. Greed, in this case, is not good.

Because the interfaces to existing systems, a patchwork fragment of poorly administered, poorly designed, limited-access, and all partial systems are frankly far more tedious to navigate than Sci-Hub: Submit DOI or URL, get paper.

Because unaffiliated independent research is a thing.

Because the old regime is absolutely unsustainable. It will die. It is dying as we write this.

Because the roles of financing research and publication need not parallel the activity of accessing content. Ronald Coase's "Theory of the Firm" (1937, ), a paper which should be public domain today under the law in which it was created and published, and should have been by 1991 at the latest, but isn't, tells us why: transactions themselves have costs.

Because journals no longer serve a primary role as publishers of academic material, but as gatekeepers over academic professional advancement. This perpetrates multiple pathologies: papers don't advance knowledge, academics are blackmailed into the system, and access to knowledge is curtailed

Because what the academic publishing industry calls "theft" the world calls "research".

https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/4p2rwk/what_th...

I use Sci-Hub extensively, it's one of a few of my go-to sources for information, which I'm using in large amounts (1000s of articles and books) for an area of large and broad scope.

Others includie BookZZ / Book4You and LibGen, both also democratising information in opposition to the copyright cartel.

The Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, Hathi Trust, and a number of largely special-purpose archives also serve my needs, but the simple truth is that a large and comprehensive archive is itself useful on account of reducing search and access frictions. As the US Library of Congress discovered when it became the largest book collection in the United States in the early 20th century, and hence a magnet for scholars. It might not have everything, but odds were good that it had any particular thing. Shoe-leather costs being somewhat higher for trekking between Cambridge, MA and DC in those days than navigating through websites is today.

What's truly pathetic is that oftentimes its the indices themselves which aren't online. I've been stymied repeatedly in trying to access old periodicals because there are no generally available indexes that don't require academic affiliation or on-site access.

The frustration de jour is in trying to find access to several works published between 1920 and the 2nd century AD, all out of copyright, but for which there appear to be no digital copies available.

Programmers are familiar with various charts of timings that they should be familar with. My own lookup time has just bumped from 2 minutes to 2-4 weeks, and that clock starting when I reach the ILL desk.

And since the question "but how will you pay for it" inevitably arises: Universal Content Syndication.

Treat information as the public good it is.

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