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Thanks for correcting me. I appreciate it.

That is why I wrote in another reply that I would not personally deliver a copy of an article to somebody who I don't know personally.
And not on an online forum.

I could not be sure if the recipient uses the article really "for personal use or scholarly, educational, or scientific research or professional use but not for re-sale". And if the unknown recipient decides to duplicate the article (or ebook, or an issue of a journal) and sell or distribute it widely I can't do anything about it..

I really can't give you a definite answer. Moral questions are not easy to answer.

Personally, I could give a copy of an article for somebody who needs it desperately if:
- he or she has tried to acquire the article from his/her uni/department/tutor/etc
- his or her uni refuses to buy the article
- he or she is not able to find the same information from a different source
- does not duplicate it and returns/deletes it immediately after the usage (I don't want
that articles spread over the net with my customer credentials printed on the margin).

But not on an online forum. And not if I do not know him/her personally.

But how often? Once or twice a year? Maybe. I don't know. I have not had to think about it..

Sorry. English is not my first language. I should have selected my words more wisely. You are right. If somebody steals a magazine or a book from a bookstore that is called stealing. But, in my opinion, in cyberspace, where information is in intangible form, accessing non-free information without paying for it (taking a copy) can be considered to be stealing..

My university is a lower-tier post-92 university (ex-poly). I am very thankful and happy that they use
the money which they collect from their students wisely (by enhancing their library resources in this case).
I am not sure if everybody has been so lucky than I have been. But at least I have been able to retrieve the
articles I want from e-publishers or at least librarians have done everything to submit me a legal copy.

You presented a couple of apposite points to make your case. Stealing may be morally right sometimes. But not
if it becomes a habit.

As for the quickness, I consider it not to be a good excuse. Why should we get everything fast or now?

No, I am not. I offered you a link, not the picture.

www.tvsquad.com/media/2006/03/homer-doh.jpg

Your supervisor is able to give you papers because your uni pays licence fees for publishers.
and as far as I kow, publishers allow authors to give out a small amount of copies for their peers (internal use).


They deserve that. They should have thought before breaking the law. :p


You can not. But would it be possible to issue an order to close down a university permanently? :p



They have the right to do that because they have paid for it.

Or have they? A plain CLA licence does not usually allow copying of multiple articles but if they have a permission from the publishers everything should be ok..


I'd not like to comment..

You will not see that day.. because my uni will buy that paper for me :p

======= Date Modified 13 Oct 2010 13:40:54 =======

Here is an excerpt from the Wiley site:

"Except as provided above, Authorized Users may not copy, distribute, transmit or otherwise reproduce, sell or resell material from Electronic Products (s); store such material in any form or medium in a retrieval system; download and/or store an entire issue of a Electronic Product or its equivalent; or transmit such material, directly or indirectly, for use in any paid service such as document delivery or list serve, or for use by any information brokerage or for systematic distribution, whether or not for commercial or non-profit use or for a fee or free of charge. "

Downloading and sending papers to other people seems to be copyright infringement, or in other words, piracy.

I am wondering why administrators allow people continuously to breach the law (and the forum rules).

If you are not able to find a suitable research topic by yourself, you should really think of doing a PhD again. Doing a PhD means doing research and unfortunately it seems that you are not capable of doing research.

I suggest that you start doing your research proposal by reading journal articles related to CS and SE and especially the sections "conclusions and further research" of those articles to find out other researchers' conclusions on interesting future research topics.

I am afraid that nobody is going to give you a ready research proposal title here.

I think that the majority of students here are from the UK. I think that you should visit the GradCafe (www.thegradcafe.com) which is a US version of PostgradForum.

As for the questions you asked, here are some answers for the first question. I am not an expert so you should confirm their validity from elsewhere..

Costs: Depends on university and PhD program. It is impossible to give a definite answer. Prestigious schools waive all your fees and give you a competitive stipend provided that you apply for and are offered a graduate assistant position. At lower-tier universities students have to pay their fees and living.

If you are not a US citizen, you are not allowed to work (exception is the afore-mentioned graduate teaching/research/office assistant positions etc). International graduate students hold F1 or J1 visas. If they work outside campus and get caught, they will be deported quickly (as far as I know)..

In case that you hold a visa which allows you to work in the US, you are not able to study.

Satchi,

Have you tried LyX (www.lyx.org)? It is a latex frontend program which is rather easy to learn.

This is hilarious.

I think that the The GradCafe (www.thegradcafe.com) accommodates a wider audience for questions regarding US schools.

Have you really asked your librarian? I can't believe that they do not buy the article if it is so important to you..