Piracy in scholarly communication is leading academic publishers to restrict the rights of legitimate users to access licensed content. This presentation will provide an overview of the issues surrounding piracy, such as how pirate websites operate, reaction from publishers and other content providers, and the potentially transformative implications for libraries and for the scholarly publishing industry. Using a case study, the presenters will engage audience members to consider practical licensing solutions to ensure broad access rights and user privacy in this protectionist publisher response. The speakers will also introduce the broader question of how piracy sites, such as Sci-Hub, are potential disrupters to publishing and how this could impact academic libraries’ approach to advocating for changes in scholarly communication.
Outcomes:
– Understand the characteristics of piracy in academic publishing in order to identify its potential to disrupt and transform how scholarship is disseminated and discovered
– Identify the actions taken by scholarly publishers to prevent piracy in order to recognize the effect of these actions on how libraries and their communities can use licensed materials
– Outline key elements of a case study at one institution in order to inform successful strategies to preserve user rights for licensed materials and to protect user privacy
