Hi Iddo, and thanks for the comment. I think you've actually cut to the core
of my argument. The point is that actually all of these academics _are_
paying for those subscription access - they just choose to ignore it. And
they're not going to be able to ignore it for much longer. In the next year
librarians are going to be cutting subscriptions back savagely and the
option will be simple: If you want JACS/Biophys J/Cell/J Neurosci then the
department will have to find the money directly. Once that happens my
suspicion is that OA with APCs starts to look attractive.

The catch is that politically the appeal here is that the academics can claw
back money out of the hands of central administration (i.e. the library).
This is an easy story to sell within departments but a longer view I think
includes the realisation that we need the library to manage the transition.
But believe me, the next 18 months are going to look very interesting. There
are many major universities in Europe that do not subscribe to Cell. My
institution no longer gets Science. I can't read most of the journals core
to my work with our institutional subscriptions. It's going to spread and
it's going to start cutting into the core subscriptions of research
departments who are then going to have to choose whether to put the money up
themselves. That's where change starts, when the pain bites.