The scientists encouraging online piracy with a secret codeword - BBC News

"What if you're a scientist looking for the latest published research on a particular subject, but you can't afford to pay for it? In many countries, it's against the law to download copyrighted material without paying for it - whether it's a music track, a movie, or an academic paper. Published research is protected by the same laws, and access is generally restricted to scientists - or institutions - who subscribe to journals. But some scientists argue that their need to access the latest knowledge justifies flouting the law, and they're using a Twitter hashtag to help pirate scientific papers. Andrea Kuszewski, a cognitive scientist and science writer, invented the tag, which uses a code phrase: 'I can haz PDF' - a play on words combining a popular geeky phrase used widely online in a meme involving cat pictures, and a common online file format ..."