| Abstract: |
Academic research and publishing are facing a crisis. The importance of access
to academic literature in an interconnected world, the ever-growing cost of
subscriptions to this literature, different revenue models of journals, and
reducing or stagnant library budgets are pushing research and the academic
community to find alternatives for academic research and publications. In its
25 years of existence, the open access movement and models which sought to
contain the crisis have become the subject of considerable criticism. At the
same time, a significant portion of academic literature remains locked behind
steep paywalls. This has led to the growth of pirate websites and shadow
libraries which have been met with forceful legal retribution by the
publishers using Copyright laws. Using the Sci-Hub case, which is currently
facing copyright infringement by a group of publishers before the Delhi High
Court, the article evaluates the Open Access Movement, fair dealing in
copyright law, academic piracy, and courts cases in the United States, India,
and other countries, within the broad meaning of the right to research. The
paper concludes that the purposive interpretation of the Copyright Law may
have an answer enabling a just outcome. |