> The other issue is that it takes millions of dollars to fund the research for many of these papers. With no incentive to make money on the research, companies will either stop the research, or it will go completely private and there will be no access for anyone.
Most of the basic research being published is government funded and is conducted by universities or other academic entities, not companies. The publishing companies (Elsevier) aren't conducting any of the research; for the most part they are simply hosting manuscripts.
> Even so, it will not change the system. It will only make it more difficult to conduct research in the future.
I don't see why. If anything it is in the academics' best interest to have their papers show up on this service as it increases access and probability of citation. Also please explain how more ready access to information hinders research. You are aware that academics make 0 dollars off of content submitted to journals right? 100% of the profits go to the publishers.
> If anything it is in the academics' best interest to have their papers show up on this service as it increases access and probability of citation.
Most people I know (myself included) are very happy to see most of their papers on sci-hub. We couldn't care less about how people find them, as long as they're cited.
> You are aware that academics make 0 dollars off of content submitted to journals right?
And yes, in fact, in my field, publishing costs ~$2500 per paper. More if it's open-access.
> You can't tell me all of them are government funded.
The majority are. A minority (<<1% to ~30% depending on field) were (also) funded by private grants and industry. In all three cases, the institution funding the research will receive 0 compensation from the journal if you pay $30+ for a paper. It all goes to the journal and its 40%+ profit margin.
"But why don't competing journals steal their business?"
Because the top few journals are the de-facto clearinghouses and ratings-providers for academics. If you are an academic who values his career, you will pay what they ask.
The researchers generally pay money, often thousands of dollars, to the journals in order to publish their work there. I have literally never heard of a situation where a researcher makes money by charging for access to their research.
You seem to legitimately misunderstand this, so let's make this very very clear: of all the thousands of papers on that website, the publisher aka Elsevier and others had no part in the actual research, they have not funded the research, they have in fact very likely taken money from the very researchers.
Most of the basic research being published is government funded and is conducted by universities or other academic entities, not companies. The publishing companies (Elsevier) aren't conducting any of the research; for the most part they are simply hosting manuscripts.