Bitte unterstützen und weiter verbreiten! lg
Martin Mair > *From:* Krystian Woznicki <k...@berlinergazette.de > <mailto:k...@berlinergazette.de>> > *Date:* 1 Dec 2015 09:37:12 GMT+1 > *To:* digi-ya...@berlinergazette.de <mailto:digi-ya...@berlinergazette.de> > *Subject:* *[bgcon] "Solidarity with Library Genesis and Scicence Hub"* > *Reply-To:* k...@berlinergazette.de <mailto:k...@berlinergazette.de> > > Hi, > > you probably heard about the case where Elsevier won against Library > Genesis and Sci-hub. And probably also heard about all of the calls for > boycott of Elsevier (Dutch ministry of education, among others), > petitions to save Ashgate publishing, a collective resignation of Lingua > journal etc. > > A group of people working on shadow libraries and archives, most of them > working in the neighboorhood of Berliner Gazette as well as our > UN|COMMONS project, decided to take a public stance. They think that > it's a moment to emerge from anonymity around sharing of academic > articles and publications. And they wrote a letter that calls for > "Solidarity with Library Genesis and Scicence Hub". Here the link to it: > http://custodians.online See below as plain text. > > The initiators of this call are i.e. DuÅ¡an Barok (monoskop.org > <http://monoskop.org>), Sean > Dockray (aaaaarg), Kenneth Goldsmith (ubu), Sebastian Lütgert > (textz.org <http://textz.org>), Anthony Iles, Josephine Berry and > Pauline van Mourik > Broekman (all Mute), Femke Snelting (Constant/Memory of the World), > spideralex (Calafou/Memory of the World), Lawrence Liang (Alternative > Law Forum), Dubravka SekuliÄ, Tomislav Medak and Marcell Mars (all > Memory of the World). They have no fantasy that the letter will topple > the might of academic publishers, but the anger over loosing access to > Science Hub is such that it might shift the atmosphere further against > this being only a game of legal hide and seek. > > After you see it "officially" shared by people listed above, we would > appreciate if you could support it by sharing it among your friends, via > social networks, recommending for press coverage etc. The initiators > care in particular for the support from beyond the northatlantic world. > If you have any suggestions, contacts or ideas how to improve this > action or make it more visible or better please don't hesitate to > contact the initiators at the following email address > <little.prince@custodians.online > <mailto:little.prince@custodians.online>>. They would appreciate that > a lot! > > This gesture is necessary for establishing the solidarity network for > the future struggles. Some of the legal problems already started with > Aaaaarg and Memory of the World (i.e. Public Library). As you will see > in the letter (below, around 6 minutes read) the initiators try to > introduce the 'custodian' identity which is inclusive and hopefully > exciting and motivating all of the people who care about knowledge, > internet and the world. > > Best wishes, > > Krystian > > --- > > Suggested taglines are: > > on twitter: > http://custodians.online > 4LibGen&Sci-hub: share this letter, read it in public, care for the > libraries, water the âââââ, clean the volcanoes. > > on facebook: > "http://custodians.online > > In Solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-hub > > Share this letter - read it in public - leave it in the printer. Share > your writing - digitize a book - upload your files. Don't let our > knowledge be crushed. Care for the libraries - care for the metadata - > care for the backup. Water the âââââ - clean the volcanoes." > > > Now, here is the letter: > > *# In solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-Hub* > > In Antoine de Saint Exupéry's tale the Little Prince meets a businessman > who accumulates stars with the sole purpose of being able to buy more > stars. The Little Prince is perplexed. He owns only a flower, which he > waters every day. Three volcanoes, which he cleans every week. "It is of > some use to my volcanoes, and it is of some use to my flower, that I own > them," he says, "but you are of no use to the stars that you own". > > There are many businessmen who own knowledge today. Consider Elsevier, > the largest scholarly publisher, whose 37% profit margin[^1] stands in > sharp contrast to the rising fees, expanding student loan debt and > poverty-level wages for adjunct faculty. Elsevier owns some of the > largest databases of academic material, which are licensed at prices so > scandalously high that even Harvard, the richest university of the > global north, has complained that it cannot afford them any longer. > Robert Darnton, the past director of Harvard Library, says "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 buy back the > results of our labour at outrageous prices."[^2] For all the work > supported by public money benefiting scholarly publishers, particularly > the peer review that grounds their legitimacy, journal articles are > priced such that they prohibit access to science to many academics - and > all non-academics - across the world, and render it a token of > privilege[^3]. > > Elsevier has recently filed a copyright infringement suit in New York > against Science Hub and Library Genesis claiming millions of dollars in > damages.[^4] This has come as a big blow, not just to the administrators > of the websites but also to thousands of researchers around the world > for whom these sites are the only viable source of academic materials. > The social media, mailing lists and IRC channels have been filled with > their distress messages, desperately seeking articles and publications. > > Even as the New York District Court was delivering its injunction, news > came of the entire editorial board of highly-esteemed journal Lingua > handing in their collective resignation, citing as their reason the > refusal by Elsevier to go open access and give up on the high fees it > charges to authors and their academic institutions. As we write these > lines, a petition is doing the rounds demanding that Taylor & Francis > doesn't shut down Ashgate[^5], a formerly independent humanities > publisher that it acquired earlier in 2015. It is threatened to go the > way of other small publishers that are being rolled over by the growing > monopoly and concentration in the publishing market. These are just some > of the signs that the system is broken. It devalues us, authors, editors > and readers alike. It parasites on our labor, it thwarts our service to > the public, it denies us access[^6]. > > We have the means and methods to make knowledge accessible to everyone, > with no economic barrier to access and at a much lower cost to society. > But closed accessâs monopoly over academic publishing, its spectacular > profits and its central role in the allocation of academic prestige > trumps the public interest. Commercial publishers effectively impede > open access, criminalize us, prosecute our heroes and heroines, and > destroy our libraries, again and again. Before Science Hub and Library > Genesis there was Library.nu or Gigapedia; before Gigapedia there was > textz.org <http://textz.org>; before textz.org <http://textz.org> > there was little; and before there was > little there was nothing. That's what they want: to reduce most of us > back to nothing. And they have the full support of the courts and law to > do exactly that.[^7] > > In Elsevier's case against Sci-Hub and Library Genesis, the judge said: > "simply making copyrighted content available for free via a foreign > website, deserves the public interest"[^8]. Alexandra Elbakyan's > original plea put the stakes much higher: "If Elsevier manages to shut > down our projects or force them into the darknet, that will demonstrate > an important idea: that the public does not have the right to knowledge." > > We demonstrate daily, and on a massive scale, that the system is broken. > We share our writing secretly behind the backs of our publishers, > circumvent paywalls to access articles and publications, digitize and > upload books to libraries. This is the other side of 37% profit margins: > our knowledge commons grows in the fault lines of a broken system. We > are all custodians of knowledge, custodians of the same infrastructures > that we depend on for producing knowledge, custodians of our fertile but > fragile commons. To be a custodian is, de facto, to download, to share, > to read, to write, to review, to edit, to digitize, to archive, to > maintain libraries, to make them accessible. It is to be of use to, not > to make property of, our knowledge commons. > > More than seven years ago Aaron Swartz, who spared no risk in standing > up for what we here urge you to stand up for too, wrote: "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 â we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you > join us?"[^9] > > We find ourselves at a decisive moment. This is the time to recognize > that the very existence of our massive knowledge commons is an act of > collective civil disobedience. It is the time to emerge from hiding and > put our names behind this act of resistance. You may feel isolated, but > there are many of us. The anger, desperation and fear of losing our > library infrastructures, voiced across the internet, tell us that. This > is the time for us custodians, being dogs, humans or cyborgs, with our > names, nicknames and pseudonyms, to raise our voices. > > Share this letter - read it in public - leave it in the printer. Share > your writing - digitize a book - upload your files. Don't let our > knowledge be crushed. Care for the libraries - care for the metadata - > care for the backup. Water the flowers - clean the volcanoes. > > ---- > > [^1]: > http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127502, > http://svpow.com/2012/01/13/the-obscene-profits-of-commercial-scholarly-publishers/ > > [^2]: > http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices > > [^3]: > http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/20121017558785551.html > > [^4]: > https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-tears-down-academias-illegal-copyright-paywalls-150627/ > > [^5]: https://www.change.org/p/save-ashgate-publishing > > [^6]: http://thecostofknowledge.com/ > > [^7]: In fact, with the TPP and TTIP being rushed through the > legislative process, no domain registrar, ISP provider, host or human > rights organization will be able to prevent copyright industries and > courts from criminalizing and shutting down websites "expeditiously". > > [^8]: > https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-shutdown-of-libgen-bookfi-and-sci-hub-151102/ > > [^9]: > https://archive.org/stream/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008_djvu.txt > > > -- > ------------------------------------------------- > UN|COMMONS - DOCUMENTATION > Projects, papers, recordings, photos and videos from the > international conference on the fight for common wealth > http://berlinergazette.de/uncommons > ------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ bagasch mailing list bagasch@lists.monochrom.at http://monochrom.at/mailman/listinfo/bagasch
