And I'm not talking about the capital costs of building labs and all that. I'm talking about the cost of accessing academic articles (including theses) that are behind paywalls, and the personal cost if someone catches you (gasp) sharing them illegally.
The phrase "information wants to be free" has always caused me to raise a dubious eyebrow, but there's something not quite right here.
Colombian Student Faces Prison Charges for Sharing an Academic Article Online
In many parts of the developing world, students face barriers to access academic materials. Libraries are often inadequate, and schools and universities are often unable to pay dues for expensive, specialized databases. For these students, the Internet is a vital tool and resource to access materials that are otherwise unavailable to them. Yet despite the opportunities enabled by the Internet, there are still major risks to accessing and sharing …
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