From: Eric Elmore <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2017 15:55:00 +0000

I have a better question.  Why should the public fund the university
and the professors who do the research, write the papers that go into
the journals, provide the gratis editorial staff from the faculty at
the universities, and then GIVE for-profit publishers the academic
output which was paid for with increasingly hard to come by public
dollars?

And an even better question – then, after providing all those free
goods and services to a for-profit publisher, why should those same
universities then have to pay ever increasing subscription fees for
their own scholarship?

If you truly want to know why university presses and smaller society
publishers are struggling, it’s because university library budgets are
being gobbled up by for-profit publishers, who for some reason, feel
entitled to 30% profit margins or they’re being persecuted somehow.

I don’t think ANY reasonable person would begrudge a for-profit
institution who actually provides value for the cost as a problem, but
when the relationship becomes abusively extractive that IS a problem.

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Eric Elmore                                                             |
Electronic Resources Coordinator                     |
The University of Texas at San Antonio            |
One UTSA Circle                                                     |
San Antonio, TX.  78249-0671                             |

(O)210-458-4916/(F)210-458-4577                    |
[log in to unmask]                                         |

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From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2017 09:23:33 -0500

Just curious how many librarians share the view of Ms. Elbakyan that
communism should govern relationships in the academy and that
capitalism has no place in scholarship.  For her property is theft, so
copyright protection is ipso facto immoral.

Sandy Thatcher

P.S. Kevin Hawkins has provided a link to the video interview that she
gave during the UNT conference on open access in the comments to Joe's
piece.