I think we are seeing the infectious effects of capitalism spreading throughout what was once the free domain of knowledge. Until the internet, the stuff that c

I think we are seeing the infectious effects of capitalism spreading throughout what was once the free domain of knowledge. Until the internet, the stuff that cost money was usually 'stuff'. Ideas, algorithms and even software was free, Then Bill Gates showed how something ephemeral as code (arrangements of electrons?) code could build a business colossus. Then Google showed advertising could be used to monetize not just information, but the desire to find information. Then Facebook showed how to monetize our identities. In all of this, the staid academics saw the efforts of their lives (theses, research, papers, etc.) reprinted, disseminated and reused by others and they got NOTHING. Of course a few people were lucky, Wally Gilbert had his insulin gene sequenced, cloned into a bacterium and made billions with Biogen. But most purveyors of knowledge have been left out in the cold. All the searches that led to the knowledge they farmed has been monetized by others. And they get nothing. So now we are in the era of flourishing paywalls, content restriction and even browsers that subvert advertisements. And the academic administrators have gotten so jealous, they have raised tuition beyond the reach of most people. They want their piece of the pie, civilization be damned. And the cannon fodder of the education machine, the teachers, are the ones getting shafted as well. It's not just the New England Journal. It's all of education.