[ModernMech]

I agree to a large extent. At the same time, we have a problem in this country where scientists are paid a pittance for their fundamental work, which downstream is capitalized by corporations, paywalled, patented, and sold for a huge profit.

One thing that many scientists do is start businesses using their research, which serves as an incentive in the face of meager salaries. If not for the prospect of commercializing their work, many people might not even go into the field. In our capitalist system, this is unfortunately how things work.

So if you want to make scientific work all public domain, then as a society we need to make real investments into science to properly fund it. We also need to close the loop, such that large corporations who profit off this publicly funded work are forced to pay back into the system at a proportional rate. No more 0% corporate taxes, which cause money to pool at the top.

[serial_dev]

I don't see how scientists starting businesses and making the articles public domain are connected.

Having the articles freely available is good for encouraging discovery, communication and learning.

I don't see how that would significantly change the equation for protecting your business, as we assume the article was already available for 30 dollars.

If a 30 dollars fee is the only thing that stops someone from stealing your idea, it is either a bad idea, or your competitors don't realize it's a good one.

[ModernMech]

Parent said “work, data, journal, etc.” should be public domain. I presume “etc.” would mean patents as well.