Sci-Hub romanticizes itself as:
Sci-Hub the first pirate website in the world to provide mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers. (from the about page)
I agree with:
…mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers
But Sci-Hub is hardly:
…the first pirate website in the world
I don’t remember the first gate-keeping publisher that went from stealing from the public in print to stealing from the public online.
With careful enough research I’m sure we could track that down but I’m not sure it matters at this point.
What we do know is that academic research is funded by the public, edited and reviewed by volunteers (to the extent it is reviewed at all), and then kept from the vast bulk of humanity for profit and status (gate-keeping).
It’s heady stuff to think of yourself as a bold and swashbuckling pirate, going to stick it “…to the man.”
However, gate-keeping publishers have developed stealing from the public to an art form. If you don’t believe me, take a brief look at the provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership that protect traditional publisher interests.
Recovering what has been stolen from the public isn’t theft at all, its restoration!
Use Sci-Hub, support Sci-Hub, spread the word about Sci-Hub.
Allow gate-keeping publishers to slowly, hopefully painfully, wither as opportunities for exploiting the public grow fewer and farther in between.
PS: You need to read: Meet the Robin Hood of Science by Simon Oxenham to get the full background on Sci-Hub and an extraordinary person, Alexandra Elbakyan.