
The pathetic note by Vineet Kumar on the Sci-Hub is appalling. In countries where the scholarship is poorly funded or there are budgetary constraints every other day- to keep pace with the phenomenally expensive demands of the publishers, Sci-Hub free access, no matter the way it disseminates information, is perfectly reasonable. It is a step closer to the democratization of information; free access to publicly funded research. The advocates of open access who otherwise should have defended it are siding with the ones whose business is to trap knowledge behind paywalls. it deeply worries me about the future of research in countries like ours. The scholarship is being produced mainly by the universities and is given to third parties for free, and then pay that party to access our own research. There are these terrible problems that require an investigation, different perspectives to deal with them, but unfortunately, we have people who cluelessly are endorsing the monopoly. In our decadent library systems, that failed to give ubiquitous access to their ostensible subscribed resources during the pandemic, it was Sci-Hub, that provided free and uninterrupted access to everyone in their comfort zones. The only issue if there is any, is the issue of copyright, it is time for the policymakers to find alternative ways if they are unhappy with the Sci-Hub, rather than banning it for good. Saleeq Omar -PhD. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.