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Elsevier, Wiley, and American Chemical Society filed a lawsuit in India late December to compel local ISPs to block access to Sci-Hub and Libgen on copyright infringement grounds. With the case set for a hearing tomorrow, scientists, academics, teachers and students are calling on the government to prevent a blockade for the good of society. Following in the footsteps of the entertainment industries, publishers are increasingly trying to have pirate sites shut down or blocked to prevent the unlicensed spread of academic and scientific papers.

A legal campaign by academic and scientific publishers to prevent Internet users from accessing Sci-Hub and Libgen has expanded to India. In a complaint filed at the High Court in Delhi, Elsevier, Wiley, and American Chemical Society, are demanding that local ISPs should block the sites to prevent copyright infringement. More than thirteen years after the first pirate site was blocked following a court order in Denmark, movie, music and sports companies in dozens of countries have sought similar action. More recently, publishing giants inclu