Simply browsing the public web, including PDFs on the web, is generally legal in Germany, that`s for sure. It is therefore obvious that it is legal to search for Sci-Hub in Germany by fixed registration. In addition, Sci-Hub receives and is typically used to display individual articles included in much larger published journals. In addition, Sci-Hub is generally used for scientific research. According to the publishers, it is technically illegal to use a service like SciHub. As Cashman points out, viewing SciHub`s content is considered a “grey area” in Germany and many other countries. Although I can recommend its use in countries where it is not economically profitable to do anything else, the same cannot be said of the German system. First of all, it can be assumed that the viewer of an illegally accessible essay spares his own acquisition. This argument makes little sense in scientific articles. Indeed, as a rule, these articles are not purchased by readers20, but are used free of charge by libraries and research institutes. If such access is not available, the desired contribution can be obtained for a very small fee through interlibrary loan.
Using a phantom library apparently doesn`t save money here. Or is it the case? The choice seemed clear: either they left the doctorate or they illegally obtained copies of the documents. Millions of researchers turned to Science Hub, the world`s largest pirate website for scholarly literature. For this reason, researchers feel no guilt. In his view, high-priced journals could “significantly slow down the growth of science.” The High Court voted on 6. January 2021, wait with the adoption of an injunction in the case until he hears explanations from scientists, researchers and students. [59] A hearing has been scheduled for December 16, 2021. [57] A key element of Sci-Hub`s legal defence is that it provides educational resources to researchers and therefore falls under a fair dealing exception in Indian copyright law. This defence was previously used by educational institutions to justify the reproduction of copyrighted material for use by low-income students. [57] A number of Indian academics offered their support to Sci-Hub following the filing of the complaint. Lawrence Liang helped win the support of the country`s scientific community for the site. Several petitions have been filed by Indian academics who support Sci-Hub in the lawsuit.
[57] It is probably illegal to use Sci-Hub in Germany. By “probably”, I mean that while it is possible to defend yourself in court, your defense would be based on technical details like the difference between downloading and streaming (more on the difference below), which is certainly fragile ground. If you are sued, you do not have a strong case. Several court rulings have also ruled against things that would make using Sci-Hub illegal, so if the court sets a precedent in the decision, it`s probably against you. A study by Utrecht University concludes that 75% of items purchased via Sci-Hub were also legally accessible (licenses/open access), cf. Kramer, Sci-Hub: Access or Comfort? A case study from Utrecht. im2punt0.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/sci-hub-utrecht-case-study-part-1/ and im2punt0.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/sci-hub-access-or-convenience-a-utrecht-case-study-part-2/. See also Bohannon, John: Who`s download pirated papers? Each. in: Science 352 (2016), pp.
508-512. In 2015, academic publisher Elsevier filed a lawsuit in New York against SciHub, alleging copyright infringement, and the ensuing lawsuit resulted in the loss of the original scihub.org domain. ↩ The discipline-specific characteristics of using Sci-Hub have hardly been studied so far. An exception is medical literature. It was found that 69% of requests for specialized literature in this area date back to low- and middle-income countries. Middle-income countries that do not benefit from the HINARI2 program have the highest download-to-capita ratio (Till et al., 2019). The authors of this study conclude that Sci-Hub is used to close inequities in legal access to medical literature. On the one hand, the mere enjoyment of the work does not concern uses within the meaning of copyright. Just as no one would think of banning the reading of pirated copies or the listening of illegally burned CDs, one will not have to judge the reading of pirated copies on the screen differently.15 It is illegal to create and launch weapons of mass destruction based on instructions you can find with Sci-Hub. But it`s not the use of Sci-Hub that makes it illegal.
Likewise with the plethora of examples created by monopolists designed to mislead readers into believing or even claiming that any use of Sci-Hub is illegal, or “It is probably illegal to use Sci-Hub in Germany”. Selling access to copyrighted content without the permission of the monopolist is illegal (Filmspeler). Sci-Hub sources articles from sources that have been legally acquired by law: for-profit magazine publishers (and their ISPs). Sci-Hub, on the other hand, does not use them for commercial purposes. academia.stackexchange.com/questions/86414/is-it-legal-to-use-sci-hub-cc-in-germany According to The Scholarly Kitchen, a blog of the Society for Scholarly Publishing whose members are involved in a lawsuit against Sci-Hub, the credentials used by Sci-Hub to access paid articles correlate with accessing other information through university networks (e.g., cyberespionage of universities) and selling information. identification on Black Markets. [68] Several articles have reported that Sci-Hub has penetrated the computer networks of more than 370 universities in 39 countries. These include more than 150 institutions in the United States, more than 30 in Canada, 39 in the United Kingdom and more than 10 in Sweden.
Universities in the UK include Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and King`s College, London. [69] [70] [71] [72] The acceptance of these services by researchers and other groups of individuals, the blurring of boundaries in public perception of open access, and the potential consequences for existing legal access to specialized literature are of concern not only to information scientists around the world. An analysis of the topics that could be attributed to the requested papers shows that a large proportion of downloads concerned publications in four fields: mathematics, decision science, medicine and social sciences. This could be seen as an indication of information needs in these areas, which are not fully covered by existing legal services. The first decisive question is whether the mere reading on screen of a work obtained via Sci-Hub constitutes a lawful use within the meaning of the law. Spontaneously, it could be said that the use of an illegal phantom library could hardly be called legal.9 But this is not the decisive factor in this case. The decisive factor in § 44a UrhG is only the user`s point of view and what he does in a concrete usage situation. The operation of the site is financed by donations from users. [4] PHP code, Linux web server configuration and maintenance are done by Elbakyan himself to avoid the risk of moles or a broken team impacting the service. [64] Over the years, different URLs and direct IP addresses have been used for Sci-Hub, as dozens of domain names have been seized by different judicial authorities. [65] If there`s one silver lining, it`s that you`re unlikely to be caught. But you would still be doing something illegal.
Should you always use Sci-Hub? This is due to your personal moral code. Under German law, it is legal to make a copy of a work without the consent of the copyright holder if all of the following conditions are met (Articles 53(1) and 53(4)): In the literature, this view, which has been discussed mainly in relation to the streaming of illegally posted cinema films or pornography, 11 Even the BMJV is of the opinion that the mere enjoyment of the work on the internet is not open to criticism from the point of view of copyright.12 Since the reproduction of the work accessible via Sci-Hub on the screen at the latest with the closing of the browser or.