Has Elsevier made any response to all of these calls for boycott? Are they even aware of it?
And are the other publishers looking at their business models so they can become less bad than they are now?
And are the other publishers looking at their business models so they can become less bad than they are now?
Having bought the idea up a couple of times, I believe the majority of academics (even in computing subjects) don't know they "should" be boycotting, and most have no intention of joining in when it is discussed with them.
I wonder if most of the noise you hear is from people attached to the 'free' journals, who obviously have an interest in getting people away from Elsevier.
Editors of Elsevier journals will send papers off for review, and get a growing number of "Sorry, I don't review papers for Elsevier journals." If you tell people that you are an editor for a nonprofit journal, everyone will agree that's a good thing, but telling people you edit for Elsevier will not have the same effect. Editorial jobs will become a drag. Morale will drop. People will quit. Journals will have to recruit lesser-known editors (and no one wants to submit good papers to journals with a bunch of B-list editors).
Meanwhile, people like Tim Gowers -- who is spearheading this movement, and who is also one of the most prolific mathematicians in the world -- will find other homes for their work. Wherever Gowers, Terry Tao, etc. publish, junior scientists would be very happy to follow. That is how the prestigious journals got that way in the first place.
In this case, it appears to be more of a "we won't work for you because we don't respect your ethics" stance. Which is fine, but they'll have to continue reading and citing articles in Elsevier journals in their work to be respected as academics.
Ultimately, the value of copyrights giving Elsevier exclusive control over access to thousands of existing "must cite" articles in searchable format means it would continue to be a profitable entity if it stopped publishing new material of comparable quality or any new material at all. It's a drop in profits I'm sure the Elsevier board would rather avoid, but the boycott doesn't seem to be offering them any more attractive alternatives.