This paper, based on the qualitative study of 100 in-depth interviews, examines the strategies employed by academics in Central and Eastern Europe to challenge the limitations in access to scholarly literature. The findings demonstrate that there are basically four strategies: the first is to use open-source material, the second to "poach" materials, the third to download papers through intermediaries, and the fourth to "pirate" them. An example of the latter is the use of Sci-Hub, which some people see as a form of resistance against academic capitalism and imperialism and at the same time a call to reform how global knowledge production is accessed.