I agree, nothing beats Nexus right now. In fact, even the AA FAQ recommends using it for recent papers. They technically include the Nexus dataset in AA, but it hasn't been updated since 2024.
Yep, let's accept the monstrous industries which lock down culture for money.
I for one support their efforts. The same way we store seeds in vaults deep in the depths of the earth, we should do this for digital content too, and without retaliation from any specific industry.
What would be better is solve the root problem. These (illegal, somewhat legitimate) hoarding sites are most valuable for research literature which, given the public funding nature of these things should not be gated to begin with.
The comsequence of resolving the symptoms is that illegitimate use piggy back on it. Artistic literature that would legitimately deserve protection get hoarded as well.
Sweating authors of clearly copyrightable arts, typically novels, manuals, are seeing their work accessed free of royalties. For the sake of freely distributing scientific literature.
It makes it impossible to make then distinction given the legitimate utility is operating in a dark domain.
Yes, we should archive everything. And we should perhaps reform IP more broadly and re-think how we treat our culture. And we shouldn't expect retaliation.
But retaliation will happen, and I worry that it's going to pull down one of the most incredible archives along with it.
