We've failed: open access is winning and we must change our approach
The content distribution problem is capital-s Solved. The reason why publishers are floundering is because their product doesn&#x27;t add value anymore.<p>As a group they have slowly been cutting out all the value-adds and buckling down on only one thing: distribution. Distribution is not valuable anymore because distribution <i>has no marginal cost</i>. This is classic rent-seeking. Cut your costs so far that your business does nothing, nothing except extract rent out of a pre-existing monopoly. This lasts exactly as long as it takes the market to make a competitor.<p>How do you win against free? <i>Be better than free.</i>