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Comment by vacri | Hacker News Reader

If "We don't need them anymore", why are you "really pissed of each time I found an article.../internet does that better than they could ever do it"?

"Your failed business model is not my problem." <- Yes, people should work effectively for free so I don't have to pay for my professional development tools! Collection, reviewing, editing, and distribution of articles on cutting edge topics, consumed by a tiny audience is not cheap.

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It's not cheap, and it's done for free by academic professionals in the corresponding fields. Please understand, the publishing houses like Springer or IEEE provide no added value except for their printing and administrative services.

Closed-access publishers are a relic of the print era. They have been carried this far by momentum of their brand names. They impede access to publicly funded research.

It's a bit disingenuous to include "collection, reviewing, and editing" in that list because it's not these companies that are responsible for the majority of those tasks, especially the reviewing part, which is by far the most time consuming and requires the expertise that is the most in short supply.

Distribution in this case amounts to little more than a file server. Nothing tremendously unique there from a technology perspective.

I guess I was railing more against "your failed business model", when both a) clearly it's working for them; and b) that slogan is the mantra of folks who want everything for free or peanuts.

The problem is that many business models in that industry work by impeding access to publicly funded research.

And indeed in every industry.

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