Sci-Hub, a website dubbed the "Pirate Bay for scientists" by offering peer-reviewed academic papers to download for free, is thumbing its nose at copyright holders following an infringement lawsuit battle in the US. on@DUF

Sci-Hub website boasts 48 million academic papers it features technology similar to anonymising proxy websites. Rather than just enabling users to search for and extract the papers they need, the Sci-Hub website is programmed to automatically search for papers on important topics and work out how to download them to its database without spending a penny.

Since various universities in the world have paid subscriber access to different premium journal services, the website is able to automatically trawl through different university proxies to trick the relevant journal's website into believing that the user accessing the academic paper has the relevant credentials similar to a paying customer.

Once the paper is unlocked, Sci-Hub then downloads the paper to its database and even looks for other missing papers on similar topics to download, so that all the researcher has to do is initiate a search, and the paper will come up, ready to be downloaded for nothing.

Apart from using Sci-Hub, the only way for researchers to gain access to research papers without paying for them is to ask people they know, or post on Twitter using the hashtag #Icanhazpdf.

There should be no obstacles to accessing knowledge, everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits."