On 19 July 2011 21:48, David Gerard <dger...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 19 July 2011 21:07, Nathan <nawr...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Vaguely related: >> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/reddit-co-founder-charged-with-data-theft >> Aaron Swartz charged by federal prosecutors with illegally downloading >> over 4 million journal articles from JSTOR, with the intent to >> redistribute them via file-sharing networks. > > Closely related. I don't believe any detail of JSTOR's denials of > involvement whatsoever. They're increasingly becoming a problem that > needs dealing with.
Demand Progress seem to be fairly clear that JSTOR were not the driving force behind the prosecution, and I'd hope they'd know! http://demandprogress.org/aaron "...JSTOR has settled any claims against Aaron, explained they’ve suffered no loss or damage, and asked the government not to prosecute." (I have always vaguely wondered how many cases like this there are - a slapped wrist and request not to do it again by the publishers. You'd think there'd be a couple of dozen cases every year, though I guess by their nature it's quite discreet.) But in more general terms, why do you specifically feel JSTOR are a problem needing dealt with? They do a lot of things right with their repository that more conventional academic publishers often do badly, in my experience. (In no particular order: retroactive access for withdrawn journals; on-site access; corpus research data; subsidised access in the developing world; transparent pricing; etc, etc.) The basic issue of gated access to scholarly research, yes, that's an issue. But it's a pretty fundamental issue to the sector - it's tied up with the whole business model of how we publish academic work - not a quirk of this one organisation for which they specifically need punished. Are there some particularly egregious bits of past behaviour I've missed? -- - Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
