Thread by @EileenAJoy

🧵Fellow humanists: do you care that the largest academic publishers in the world are suing the government of India for allowing their people to access free online libraries? Do you care that Harvard & Oxford UPs have “taken down” online libraries? tinyurl.com/4krbkubu #crimes

Fellow humanists: do you care that one of the richest unis in the US stood by & said nothing after one of the fiercest advocates for free information was prosecuted for wire fraud for daring to make knowledge open & that they, @MIT, called the police & that he committed suicide?

Fellow humanists: do you care that some of the richest unis in the world, @Harvard_Press & @UniofOxford, have used US copyright laws to “take down” online libraries that provide access to everyone in the Global South & your students who can’t afford access to your own books!

Fellow humanists: do you understand that once your students graduate, and once your grad students go out into a world without hope of any employment, that they are cut off 4EVER from the world’s knowledge, including YOUR books? #OpenAccess

Fellow humanists: do you realize that without what the US government terms “pirate” libraries” more than half the world’s population is cut off from knowledge that would help them advance as learners & scholars and even save their lives? Do you care at all?

Fellow humanists: did you know non-US-based ACADEMIC publishers in the world sue “pirate” librarians in US federal court & win those lawsuits because our copyright laws are immoral & serve business interests? Did you know these “pirates” serve public knowledge better than you?

Fellow humanists: did you know these same publishers are suing @internetarchive who are 100% legal under copyright law because they use controlled lending practices in collaboration w/ brick & mortar libraries? Did you know these same forces are going after B&M libraries too?

Fellow humanists: did you hear about what @WileyGlobal did last week which shocked uni libraries all over the world? That they “disappeared” from the catalogs over 1,300 books & told libraries they can no longer buy them because they will only sell them directly to students?

Fellow humanists: do you know that no publisher has EVER done this before? Do you understand they will get away with this, legally? Do you know how devastated librarians are? How this will affect students? Do you understand libraries are being eliminated? On purpose?

Fellow humanists: do you care that librarians all over the world are frightened? Are you going to help your libraries? Do you understand “pirate” libraries will come to the rescue? Will you support them? Will you stand by & claim, we didn’t know? #catastrophe

Fellow humanists: do you work on decoloniality, antiracism, social justice, leftist politics, class inequity, the Anthropocene & neoliberalism & publish with presses & their subsidiaries (named in our essay above) who actively work against your values as a scholar? Do you care?

Fellow humanists: are you understanding how all of this makes your so-called importantly politically enlightened scholarship hollow & empty & criminally negligent? That no one in the Global South can read nor learn from your work without free #OpenAccess? Help us free knowledge.

Fellow humanists: do you realize there is a connection between these issues & the rising tide of fascism across the world including the US & book banning? Do you remember the burning books of the Nazi regime? Do you think your practices as a scholar have no connection to this?

Fellow humanists: support your libraries both on campus and off, in your neighborhood & online, no matter how “illegal.” Walk into your uni library — WALK in — aid your librarians & ask them how you can help. Publish your work #OpenAccess This is the end of the line. Please help.

#AcademicTwitter #LibraryTwitter @OpenBookCollect @RadicalOA @ScholarLed @COPIMproject @OAPENbooks @DOABooks @CalDigLib @ALA_ACRL @lyrasis @ALALibrary @edrabinski @UCSBLibrary @CRL_Global @ARLnews @NEH_ODH @pkp @petersuber Please help boost & retweet.

CODA: we forgot to also say: Fellow Humanists: did you know that the one of the world's most sought after self-described "radical" presses @VersoBooks & @thenewpress betrayed Aaron Swartz's written legal directive to keep his work open into perpetuity? With impunity? DIVEST.

P.S. Just so everyone understands because my tweets above about @WileyGlobal might be confusing to some. Wiley can do this because they never let libraries actually own ebooks. They only “lease” the books and also charge for every reader. Rent-seeking capitalism anyone?

To @WileyGlobal your ebooks action will be shown to be illegal. You can’t deny purchase or lease to any buyer. Just like no one can tell me they won’t bake a cake for me because I’m queer. You’re going to be sued successfully. Every lawyer in town will do this pro bono. #thieves