38 votes

Z-Library helps students to overcome academic poverty, study finds

6 comments

  1. paris
    Link
    There’s an academic book I wanted to read recently, related to my graduate research. My university is incapable of getting it. It costs 120% of the minimum monthly salary to purchase it and have...

    “Living in a 3rd world country, 1 book would cost like 50%- 80% already of my daily wage,” one Redditor wrote.

    There’s an academic book I wanted to read recently, related to my graduate research. My university is incapable of getting it. It costs 120% of the minimum monthly salary to purchase it and have it shipped here. Or I could spend five minutes online and get a nice quality OCRed PDF.

    When I was in undergrad, every single thing I needed to read for class, be it books, articles, essays, monographs, came to me from a xerox. There was a xerox station in the school where I would go, tell the xerox man what document for what professor’s class, and he would xerox the document and hand it to me fresh for a small fee. This has been the case, as far as my understanding goes, since the arrival of xerox in the country. I don’t honestly know what was done before that.

    The “necessary evil” bit of this is exactly right. If there was regional (or even fair) pricing, the need for piracy would diminish.

    12 votes
  2. [2]
    sleepydave
    Link
    "People have more money to spend when they stop paying for things." I'm all for open access academic materials but this study is a bit absurd.

    "People have more money to spend when they stop paying for things."

    I'm all for open access academic materials but this study is a bit absurd.

    7 votes
    1. tauon
      Link Parent
      It’s good to have scientifically backed proof on these “common”-ground assumptions for when they come up in discussions about funding etc., I presume.

      It’s good to have scientifically backed proof on these “common”-ground assumptions for when they come up in discussions about funding etc., I presume.

      13 votes
  3. Zealous_Fox
    Link
    As a user, I love it. It's an amazing site.

    As a user, I love it.
    It's an amazing site.

    6 votes
  4. [2]
    X08
    Link
    Those who put a price on knowledge, seek to gain from it.

    Those who put a price on knowledge, seek to gain from it.

    2 votes
    1. creesch
      Link Parent
      That feels a bit too simplistic to me. I get what you are trying to say but I don't think there is anything wrong with charging things like material costs, wages, etc for physical things like...

      That feels a bit too simplistic to me. I get what you are trying to say but I don't think there is anything wrong with charging things like material costs, wages, etc for physical things like books. Even digital resources have a cost tied to hosting.

      Doing research to gain new knowledge also has costs attached to it. Again, resources needed to do research cost money, we also like academics to make a living, etc.

      There are good reasons why knowledge might have a price. There are also a lot of bullshit reasons for prices that are not reasonable where indeed people are just trying to gain from it.

      As far as reasonable costs and prices go, this will remain. Though ideally they are not visible for those who can't afford them because they are subsidised.

      7 votes