Human Rights and OA?

[Peter Banks <pbanks@bankspub.com>]

Richard Smith, never one to shy from the incendiary, has hit a 
new extreme with 'Time to End the Slavery of Traditional 
Publishing.' (see http://www.plos.org/cms/node/204). His 
PowerPoint features a slide with images of bondage and a 
lynching. In his analogy, publishers are slave owners, authors 
and scientists slaves, and OA proponents are abolitionists.

I find the presentation nothing less than repulsive - especially 
given the apparent approving nods it received from intelligent 
people like Peter Suber, who should know better. One hopes that 
the legacy of Black slavery, like the Holocust, would be off 
limits in scoring cheap rhetorical points. But apparently such 
simple decency is now too much to ask.

The editors of PLoS should be ashamed for associating with such 
offensive rubbish.

Peter Banks
Banks Publishing
Publications Consulting and Services
10332 Main Street  #158
Fairfax, VA 22030
pbanks@bankspub.com
www.bankspub.com
www.associationpublisher.com/blog/