I am not under any delusion that such things are gratis. But if we can
make them libre then we can at least work on facilitating access for as
many people as possible without  commercial profits being factored in.
Can we as a species afford to restrict our body of knowledge in the way
we do know? Our next Einstein may be languishing in some poor nation
that can't afford such access...

On the other hand, the cost to each academic of hosting a web site for
their work is so small that if we all hosted our own work then there
would be no need at all to charge others for access. Libraries expenses
for accessing work would then be seriously reduced as they would only
have to afford the cost of a content aggregation system, and not
licensing fees.

Regards,

Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of Sociology and Social Work
University of Tasmania