Some Thoughts on Five Pending AI Litigations — Avoiding Squirrels and Other AI Distractions
Five pending cases may set new ground rules for use of training materials for AI. Here is what to watch.
They Know We Know They Know: Does Sci-Hub Affect Library Subscriptions?
So does Sci-Hub lead libraries to cancel journals, or doesn’t it? Maybe the answer isn’t a simple yes or no.
Researcher to Reader (R2R) Debate: Is Sci-Hub Good or Bad for Scholarly Communication?
Transcript of a debate held at the 2019 Researcher to Reader Conference, on the resolution “Sci-Hub Does More Good Than Harm to Scholarly Communication.”
FBI Indicts Nine Iranians in a Massive Scheme to Target Academic Credentials and Steal Content
At a press conference on Friday last week, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unsealed indictments of nine Iranian citizens. This sentence is an odd way to start a Scholarly Kitchen post, admittedly. What makes this case interesting to […]
What Is SocArXiv?
A new “papers service” for social science content was recently launched and is capitalizing on concerns over the sale of a long time preprint server by a commercial publisher. While the timing might be right, the set up looks a little hasty.
Guest Post: The American Chemical Society on the Shared Cybersecurity Concerns of Universities and Publishers
Jack Ochs from the American Chemical Society discusses the significant increase in cybersecurity threats to both publishers and libraries.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to OA
As digital piracy goes large scale, publishers, libraries, and the open access movement have a lot at stake.
Rearguard and Vanguard
The problem of piracy is not easily solved with legal or even technical initiatives. To make piracy less significant, publishers need to create a different kind of content service, one that is resistant to piracy because of its dynamic nature.
The End of an Era for Academia.edu and Other Academic Networks?
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Elsevier has issued a sweeping series of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take down notices regarding Elsevier-published content to Academia.edu, a file-sharing network for researchers and other academics.
This has prompted a storm in the Twittersphere, a response from Elsevier, a number of commentaries on blogs and list-serves, and a truly bizarre article from CNET. Academia.edu for its part is reportedly encouraging authors of affected papers to sign this Elsevier boycott petition despite the fact that their own terms of use prohibit the posting of content that infringes on the copyright or license of publishers such as Elsevier.
Is this a footnote or the end of a chapter in the annals of digital science publishing?
Pirate Attitudes: SOPA, PIPA, and the Struggle to Control Digital Properties
On the Wednesday of SOPA protests worldwide, it’s time to consider why these bills run counter to the security and reliability of the Internet itself.
Going Legit: The Difficult Path from Piracy to Partnership
Though social networking websites continue to proliferate, turning them into sustainable, revenue-generating businesses is still a difficult prospect. For sites based on the illegal distribution of copyrighted material, the process is even more difficult. Is it possible for a pirate to become a respected member of the business community?
$80,000 per Song, and Perceptions of Copyright
Two court decisions assign enormous fines for infringing copyright by sharing songs online. Is this a sign that the public is not as jaded about copyright as we’ve been led to believe?
Publishers in a Post-Ownership World
While the entertainment industry calls for tightening control of intellectual property, academic publishers are accepting alternative solutions to ownership. Is there a future for publishing?