I don't know why they decided to pause uploads. Relying on Indian courts for sensible and timely judgments will only lead to grief. They do not respect precedence and judgements often depend on the judge and the people involved rather than the facts of the case.
What happened in University of Oxford v. Rameshwari Photocopy Service is pretty rare.[1] I doubt if we will see a repeat of that one.
An individual scientist/researcher (most of them) is in pursuit of truth. Nothing matters, and nothing should matter other than that. For future discoveries, we should make knowledge as accessible as possible. But when an organization forms, it competes for power and superiority. This results in discriminatory actions that cause the overall regression of collective innovation. It is sad to see this happen.
No comments yet
faangguyindia · 1h ago
Knowledge should not be restricted in anyway, we should have direct access to these and also LLMs as well.
Currently, many LLM services only provide stuff from the study abstract.
diggan · 43m ago
Ironically, hosted on a page that me in "modern" Spain cannot read as Sci-Hub been blocked here with a lot of ISPs for a long time :)
nesk_ · 1h ago
What a shameful government!
clicks the link
blocked
Oh right, France government is shameful too.
tavavex · 31m ago
Access to a fully uncensored internet seems to be in decline nowadays, especially in the Western countries. I also saw a comment about this article being blocked in Spain. I'm just glad that my country is still holding out with no centralized censorship authority or mechanism to mass block websites, though that might not last for long with how things are going right now.
Genuine question: won't having your own—or independant—DNS server completely bypass that block?
robinsonb5 · 6m ago
Depends how it's implemented - once you've found the correct IP address you still have to connect to it, and some ISPs block and otherwise mess with traffic at that stage.
In the early days of the IWF blocklist I had trouble with a Joomla install timing out when using my own ISP but it was fine if I used a proxy. It turned out to be because the Joomla install was on cheap GoDaddy hosting, and something on the IWF list was in the same IP block as my hosting - so my ISP was directing traffic through a filtering proxy which was causing problems with Joomla.
(IP address alone isn't enough to identify a particular site, filtering everything for target websie was too expensive, so IP-based filtering was used to decide which traffic went through the filtering proxy.)
The site seems to be blocked for me in the UK, too, by the way.
tim333 · 48m ago
It's also 'blocked' in the UK, to the extent that I had one more click, on the vpn button, to read the article. (Veepn free browser extension seems to work well - I've used that for a year or two).
tavavex · 32m ago
That's not 'blocked'. That's just blocked, no quotation marks needed. Most countries' blocking attempts can be bypassed via VPNs, but that doesn't make the frameworks that let this happen any less threatening.
hnhg · 45m ago
Seems like India is shooting itself in the foot by making it more difficult to access knowledge for the benefit of overseas publishers. Countries that don't do this will be at an advantage.
goku12 · 21m ago
This one is a decision by the Delhi High Court. Something that can be overridden with legislation in public interest. However, I'm not holding my breath this time.
hto23i423o4234 · 1h ago
India is like a obsequious slave: it'll endlessly suck-up to the West, but then harden-up like anything, when this sucking-up goes unacknowledged (like the recent tariffs).
One of Colonization's sad effects (fairly sure all the Indian bureaucrats are helping with this to "settle" out their children in US/Europe with kickback "scholarships").
jacquesm · 30m ago
India has nothing to gain and everything to lose with this block.
goku12 · 25m ago
I wish the courts would care about that. Especially the Delhi High Court, which is one of the most politically driven among the bunch.
torh · 1h ago
This site is blocked at my workplace as well. A message from FortiGate says: "Category: Illegal or Unethical"
DataDaemon · 48m ago
What's wrong with you India?
renewiltord · 1h ago
Sites are routinely blocked in India. Everyone knows to use VPN software.
deepsun · 1h ago
It becomes harder as many websites block popular VPNs themselves.
Try any US or UK government websites. Or try logging in or ordering something on BestBuy or HomeDepot. Many sites allow ordering but then cancel order next day (e.g. when processing by shop.app).
Instagram allows to open a profile either logged in or without a VPN.
coderatlarge · 29m ago
in a slightly different direction: many sites also take it upon themselves to implement ip blocks. for example, us-based utility companies or healthcare companies seem to block IPs from “strategic competitor” countries (let’s say) but also from many others including supposed allies.
creata · 15m ago
How are websites blocked in India? Do you need a VPN or can you just use a different DNS server?
rgreekguy · 1h ago
Is it "just" that, or is it Elsevier's, Wiley's, and friends' doing? As I had commented the other day on a same/similar post, One Nation One Subscription was signed with Wiley this February, maybe other publishers have done something similar.
politelemon · 1h ago
Only a few people will know how to use VPN, not everyone.
What happened in University of Oxford v. Rameshwari Photocopy Service is pretty rare.[1] I doubt if we will see a repeat of that one.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford_v._Ramesh...
No comments yet
Currently, many LLM services only provide stuff from the study abstract.
clicks the link
blocked
Oh right, France government is shameful too.
In the early days of the IWF blocklist I had trouble with a Joomla install timing out when using my own ISP but it was fine if I used a proxy. It turned out to be because the Joomla install was on cheap GoDaddy hosting, and something on the IWF list was in the same IP block as my hosting - so my ISP was directing traffic through a filtering proxy which was causing problems with Joomla.
(IP address alone isn't enough to identify a particular site, filtering everything for target websie was too expensive, so IP-based filtering was used to decide which traffic went through the filtering proxy.)
The site seems to be blocked for me in the UK, too, by the way.
One of Colonization's sad effects (fairly sure all the Indian bureaucrats are helping with this to "settle" out their children in US/Europe with kickback "scholarships").
Try any US or UK government websites. Or try logging in or ordering something on BestBuy or HomeDepot. Many sites allow ordering but then cancel order next day (e.g. when processing by shop.app).
Instagram allows to open a profile either logged in or without a VPN.