Sometimes good changes need a (possibly emotionally-inspired) boost to make them possible. A small-scale example is a kickstarter campaign. A larger example is support for a bill that's bad for corporations but good for individuals.
The case of academic publishing is particularly strange. The following parties want articles to be freely available: the authors, universities, funding agencies, and the taxpayers who pay for some funding agencies. The flow of money is so perverse, and the culture of tradition so strong, that no one has a good immediate incentive to switch to open access, though.
This is an important problem because 99% of the world has no access to research that essentially everyone involved, except the publisher, wanted to be free. Or, if you think money is more important than access to research, consider that in 2011, Reed Elsevier made more money than any of these: Verizon, Nike, Mastercard, FedEx, Bank of America, Delta, or Amazon.com. And their huge profit margins come from a strongly inelastic, broken system that funnels money from our universities and taxpayers.
The case of academic publishing is particularly strange. The following parties want articles to be freely available: the authors, universities, funding agencies, and the taxpayers who pay for some funding agencies. The flow of money is so perverse, and the culture of tradition so strong, that no one has a good immediate incentive to switch to open access, though.
This is an important problem because 99% of the world has no access to research that essentially everyone involved, except the publisher, wanted to be free. Or, if you think money is more important than access to research, consider that in 2011, Reed Elsevier made more money than any of these: Verizon, Nike, Mastercard, FedEx, Bank of America, Delta, or Amazon.com. And their huge profit margins come from a strongly inelastic, broken system that funnels money from our universities and taxpayers.