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>Sci-Hub, a website that illicitly hosts full copies of papers and is used by academics around the world, is also a big factor, says Joseph Esposito, a publishi

by Jerry2 8y ago

>Sci-Hub, a website that illicitly hosts full copies of papers and is used by academics around the world, is also a big factor, says Joseph Esposito, a publishing consultant in New York City. “Without Sci-Hub the researchers would be screaming at the libraries and state agencies not to cut them off,” he says. Well, if you're going to bet your future on Sci-Hub, at least donate to the project and start creating local laws that would allow local versions of Sci-Hub archives.

garmaine 8y ago
The sci-hub people have unfortunately been unwilling to allow backups of their data.
- labster 8y ago
  Just about 15 slots down on the front page there's a page about sci-hub torrents: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115176
  - mapt 8y ago
    There are abundant mentions of torrents, and little to no mention of successful third-party mirroring efforts. The files are useless without metadata and a database-driven site to use them with - is that stuff now included?
    - Jerry2 8y ago
      >and little to no mention of successful third-party mirroring efforts That's probably because space requirements are huge (tens of terabytes of storage) and it's probably not legal in most jurisdictions (probably none of them). Those two would probably stop most people who are thinking about this. But let's say you managed to download and host it all and don't give a damn about law (maybe a Tor node?), you'd still have to grapple with bandwidth requirements for hosting such a huge collection of documents (including anti-DDoS provisions). Finally, I don't think the database itself is offered by anyone so you'd have to scrape the DOI data and create the front-end for the website. So unless you're rich and are willing to throw lots of money at this, I don't think anyone is willing to do it for no financial benefit whatsoever (and a massive downside if you get caught by the long arm of the US DOJ/FBI).
  - garmaine 8y ago
    That’s not scihub, that’s libgen. Different data sets.

by Jerry2 8y ago

garmaine 8y ago

The sci-hub people have unfortunately been unwilling to allow backups of their data.

labster 8y ago
Just about 15 slots down on the front page there's a page about sci-hub torrents: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115176
- mapt 8y ago
  There are abundant mentions of torrents, and little to no mention of successful third-party mirroring efforts. The files are useless without metadata and a database-driven site to use them with - is that stuff now included?
  - Jerry2 8y ago
    >and little to no mention of successful third-party mirroring efforts That's probably because space requirements are huge (tens of terabytes of storage) and it's probably not legal in most jurisdictions (probably none of them). Those two would probably stop most people who are thinking about this. But let's say you managed to download and host it all and don't give a damn about law (maybe a Tor node?), you'd still have to grapple with bandwidth requirements for hosting such a huge collection of documents (including anti-DDoS provisions). Finally, I don't think the database itself is offered by anyone so you'd have to scrape the DOI data and create the front-end for the website. So unless you're rich and are willing to throw lots of money at this, I don't think anyone is willing to do it for no financial benefit whatsoever (and a massive downside if you get caught by the long arm of the US DOJ/FBI).
- garmaine 8y ago
  That’s not scihub, that’s libgen. Different data sets.