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The Souvenirs You Left

I took a wistful reverie To heal from the cataclysm  Our confluence had brought.  Yet in my trance  The muses stabbed me  With shards of moments.  And I bled tears,  When my torment was complete,  The tears dried.  And the shards froze,  Into perfect crystal souvenirs  In my heart. Poem previously published at:  https://allpoetry.com/poem/15641776-The-Souvenirs-You-Left-by-AbhijitChatterjee
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Restrictions to Freedom of Knowledge : The LibGen, Sci-Hub Case

 

LibGen

My college education cost could have run into thousands of rupees (if not lakhs) but for a particular website called LibGen. The website hosts countless books, articles and peer-reviewed research papers in the form of PDF and EPUB files and lets anyone with an internet connection download said books and articles on their computer. Likewise, there is another website dedicated to scientific journals and research papers called Sci-Hub from where one may download peer-reviewed papers for free. LibGen (Library Genesis)and Sci_Hub have grown popular among users (particularly in academia) since its inception due to its vast catalogue of books and articles. 

Many publishers accused the website makers of giving pirate access to books which are under copyright. On the other hand researchers and academics vouch that the website benefits them by giving free access to research materials and books which would have otherwise beyond the financial capabilities of many students. 

Libraries within the colleges and universities often maintain a limited number of reference books and other related resources. Hence, it can cater to a few students at a time, particularly if a number of students require the same reference book. LibGen or Sci-Hub has the ability to sort this issue as only one student need to download the required book from the website and then it can be shared among the class through multiple copies.

The Indian government launched a digital centralized library in 2015 called the National Digital Library to address the growing digital divide in education. But, five years later, many hyperlinks on the website lead to non-existent pages or deleted online lessons. 

A student from a middle-class income family in India cannot afford to maintain an account on JSTOR's JPASS plan for downloading research articles. A yearly plan on JPASS costs $199 yearly, which is equivalent to Rs.14,600/-. This cost is on JSTOR alone. It has not taken into account the countless reference books the student may need to buy if he or she is unable to obtain them from the library. Moreover, JSTOR may not host the research paper desired by the student. So, multiple accounts on various platforms like Project MUSE, Arts and Humanities Citation Index and Taylor & Francis.  

On 21st December 2020, an international publisher Elsevier, along with Wiley and American Chemical Society (ACS) filed a suit in Delhi High Court seeking a ban on LibGen and Sci-Hub. The business models of publishers like Elsevier are so designed that they profit from research funded with the public-money. Hence, they often treat those research journals as their private property. They charge exorbitant amounts of money to give access to the journals. 

This practice can be seen as a category of academic exploitation and it is counterproductive to the freeflow of knowledge which, in turn, will affect the output of research. Moreover, such a practice will make higher academics exclusive to the economic upper class and it risks creating a financial aristocracy within the academia. 

In a country like ours, where the free flow of knowledge is severely plagued by the digital divide, such an injunction filed in court will hinder the majority of the people seeking higher education. 

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