When I broke in, getting ten cents a word writing for a free weekly, I sometimes resented my low pay–but at least the stuff I wrote was available to anyone who wanted to pick up the paper or visit the website.

And for the record, academic libraries pay for it – lots of money. In fact, it’s a big reason why libraries have trouble buying books – they’re subscribing to journals that a few people on their campus might read whose costs keep going up. And the content and much of the labor is also contributed for free. Admittedly, there are costs involved in publishing journals, but the system as it is now has been broken for many years.

Libraries have tried opt in – and it hasn’t worked. Darnton is showing real backbone, and I’m all for it.