Open-Access Mandates and the Seductively False Promise of “Free”

"Open-access mandates should be rejected as a prime example of regulatory overreach. In this paper, we address four reasons why this is the case:

• Open-access mandates undercut publishers’ ability to invest in producing and distributing copyrighted works.

• Open-access mandates contradict basic principles of copyright law.

• Open-access mandates are the classic example of a solution in search of a problem: there is no evidence of a systemic market failure in scholarly publishing requiring a massive regulatory intervention.

• Open-access mandates are based on untenable economic models."