I’m reading about Aaron Swartz and how he was hounded to death for advocating that information be free. Aaron’s fortune/misfortune was to live in two separate worlds — the world of copyright and the world freedom from copyright. One day when information truly is free, no one will remember why Aaron’s actions were considered as crimes. No one will remember since Aaron’s actions — together with the “illegal actions” of millions of others — will be responsible for having created that new world. Aaron will be a hero of that new world, and still remembered when the likes of JStor and the prosecutor of Massachusetts are long forgotten.
This is why copyright on academic work is a crime: I spend my entire days writing things. Unbelievably there are people out there who want to read what I write. It’s a perfect case for a free exchange. In this process various “publishing companies” intervene, restricting access, making it more difficult for me to be read and for people to find my stuff. They are profiting from restricting access to knowledge.!! That governments and universities put up with this system is particularly surprising — they are the ones who pay my salary after all. Needless to say, I get nothing from the “publishers” themselves.
The system must and it will change. Aaron’s contribution will have helped make that possible. See further my “Liberate and Disseminate,” from Times Higher Education Supplement, from back in 2008.