[open-science] How CC-BY can become TA

Wed Dec 14 18:59:11 UTC 2011

On 14 December 2011 18:01, Heather Morrison <heatherm at eln.bc.ca> wrote:

> If a journal or author uses the CC-BY license, these services can sell
> these articles, too. If anything happens to the original OA copy, then
> there is a realistic possibility that the only way to access the copy will
> be to pay these charges.

But with the internet, 'the original OA copy' is irrelevant. Anyone can
provide it on the web - the author, their institution, researchers building
their own bibliography, bloggers commenting on the piece, and so on. The
bandwidth costs for a typical academic paper are already negligible, and
will only get cheaper.

I appreciate your point that businesses will work to cut off free
competition, and I agree that there's a real danger of them doing that with
paper-based document delivery. But the open-access question is primarily
for new content being generated today, which is invariably available
electronically. It's inconceivable that they could cut off legal document
sharing on the internet, even with the most pro-business government. They
can hardly control *illegal* redistribution of music, even with laws like
the American DMCA in place.

Thomas
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