Access Copyright Admits That It's Holding Education Hostage Unless Universities Pay Up
Found on Techdirt on Friday, 16 September 2011
Being in a monopoly position, Access Copyright decided to jack up its fees. And they didn't just double or triple or even quadruple them. No, Access Copyright decided to go big and attempted to increase the per student fees by a whopping 1300%.
This seems to be a flat out admission that Access Copyright is a monopoly that knows it's a monopoly and that it can charge outrageous monopoly rents, because there's no other game in town. And, really, it's ridiculously cynical to claim that its the universities' actions that are harming the educational experience.
As a student, I would give anything about their problems with copyrights. When they can force such increased fees upon universities, students and professors need to find other solutions, if possible directly with the original creators who don't seem to see much of the collected fees anyway.