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Comment by chrismonsanto | Hacker News Reader

> Meanwhile, academic pirates continue to flood to Sci-Hub, domain seizure or not.

I realize readers of torrentfreak.com have a different relationship with the word "pirate" but--

This is not piracy. You are entitled to read work from Sci-Hub, as your taxes funded the researchers who created the work. We academics want you to read our work, we do not benefit in any way from publisher paywalls. We continue to publish in these venues because it is necessary for career advancement (whether for us, or for our students).

Please continue to "pirate" our work, and please spread the word about this problem.

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> You are entitled to read work from Sci-Hub, as your taxes funded the researchers who created the work.

Am I entitled to a joy ride in an F-15, as my taxes funded its purchase?

Yes, you are. You only have to fulfill the requirements to make sure you don't destroy it within a few seconds and aren't a danger to others. It may take a few years but you can get a fully tax-funded education on flying an F-15.

No you are not.

Only a tiny subset of people who want to fly fighter jets get to do that, even if they select the Air Force as a career. The superset of people who are excluded from flying fighter jets includes a large number of people who are safety-qualified to fly them.

The opportunity to fly fighter jets is approximately as difficult to obtain as admission to an Ivy League school. Zero is the number of reasonable people would say that anyone is "entitled" to admission at a selective college.

Is this argument valid internationally?

My canadian taxes didn't pay for american research, should I still be able to access those papers?

I'm in the U.S. and enjoy a few Canada-based journals that detail work funded by Canada. Fair trade, eh?

Sure. Same way that if you were to drive down for a weekend and not pay taxes on the roads you specifically used across the border.

Until thousands of Canadians come down every weekend just so they can use American roads and then go back home to fill up on gas, we won't worry about it.

Researchers regularly make use of work from other countries, the scientific community is international. Even if one could make an argument for not allowing Canadians to access US research without payment, it doesn't follow that Elsevier and friends are the ones who should be paid.

Research done by government employees is legally required to be public domain. I see no reason we shouldn't extend that to researchers who take government funding.

Although i agree, that's an extremely odd statement. Also, does it make sense for scientists to ask the public to fix the situation for them? Literally save them from themselves?

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