Academic material next in big piracy take-down

Academic torrent site Sci-Hub is currently facing several take-down orders by leading world publisher Elsevier.

The site allows anybody, not just academics, to access tens of millions of scholastic research articles for free.

The website was created by 27 year-old bioengineer turned Web programmer, Alexandra Elbakyan, who hoped her site would result in the promotion of information to all.

As a result of the targeting, Sci-Hub has had to repeatedly change domain names as Elsevier repeatedly brings court-orders to bring each new site down.

Elsevier offers its paid materials to several academic institutions across the globe, so Sci-Hub would be cutting directly into its profits:

“Sci -Hub is an international network of piracy (PDF) and copyright infringement by circumventing legal and authorized means of access to the ScienceDirect database. Defendants’ piracy is supported by the persistent intrusion and unauthorized access to the computer networks of Elsevier and its institutional subscribers….”