Personally I think the idea has merit. But I also see several issues: * Open access favours individuals, companies and universities who currently can't afford

Personally I think the idea has merit. But I also see several issues: * Open access favours individuals, companies and universities who currently can't afford the high subscription fees. The well off universities wield consider power and would resist such attempts. You have to remember Bill Gates does support Harvard. * Elsvier is just one of several academic publishers, Springer also comes to mind. And the numerous professional associations also profit from big subscription fees, e.g. IEEE * To the non-academic, most papers are impenetrable. Thus on a general education level, they might not be of much value. * Although people from industry often decry the difficulty in accessing academic papers, those who do have access, e.g. through university research collaboration, find that they are often of limited value. Caveat: my views are based on experiences in engineering field, specifically in the areas of electronics, computer, communications and software.