A common response among scholars to journal- and database-access restrictions is a sort of modern samizdat: asking around among one’s colleagues until someone with paid access downloads and emails a copy. (There’s even a Twitter hashtag for this. The Loon won’t spill the beans lest she be accused of contributory copyright infringement, but lolcat fans will be able to guess it readily.)
Publishers have thus far let this practice be, rightly wary of annoying the folk who provide all their content and considerable chunks of their labor. Such minor attacks as have surfaced are supply-side, such as the Guardian service marketed by Attributor, to which certain publishers have been drawn.
Legal circles, apparently, have been given to a different sort of samizdat: hiring students in order to leech their campus-provided access. The Utah bar just called shenanigans on this practice.
Will that make a dent in it? The Loon rather doubts it. Is it the harbinger of further samizdat crackdowns? Who knows? But it’s interesting.
Via: Library Stuff.
A small blow against samizdat by Library Loon, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.