CEO DATELINE - American Chemical Society sues website that pirates scientific papers
CEO DATELINE - American Chemical Society sues website that pirates scientific papers
- June 28, 2017 |
- Walt Williams
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The American Chemical Society has filed a lawsuit against a website that republishes scientific papers that usually can only be accessed behind a paywall.
The lawsuit, announced Wednesday, comes roughly a week after a U.S. court ruled that Sci-Hub and other sites that pirate scientific publications must pay publisher Elsevier $15 million for copyright infringement. Former neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan started Sci-Hub in 2011 as a way for web users to freely access studies and other scientific publications that are otherwise hidden behind paywalls.
"ACS discovered that in order to lure users to its illegitimate sources of the Society's stolen content, Sci-Hub conspirators most recently created ‘spoofed' websites that mirror the look and feel of the Society's own scientific publishing website," said Glenn Ruskin, director, ACS external affairs and communications. "Through these pirate sites, Sci-Hub illegally distributes copyrighted scientific journal articles and book content stolen from ACS."
Sci-Hub hosted some 60 million scientific papers as of 2016, according to Nature. The site accounted for about 3 percent of all scientific papers downloaded from the internet that same year.
Even if ACS wins the lawsuit, the organization may have a hard time collecting any settlements or fines. The site is based in Russia and Elbakyan has no U.S. assets, potentially putting both out the reach of U.S. courts, Nature reported. http://go.nature.com/2tYsrlY
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