I was appalled to read that STM has brought a suit against ETH-Bibliothek over distribution of electronic copies of scientific articles. What disturbs me above all is that even though your institution complies with Swiss Copyright laws in doing so and you break no laws you are still facing such shameful allegations.

We pay for the research that these journals publish. We pay for the public institutions who subscribe to these journals. We pay twice. This, in itself, is hardly fair but such is the present system. It infuriates me to read that now the publishers want us to pay a third time.

I find it sad that instead of focusing your time, energy and expertise into serving the academic community the best you can, you must now deal with such foolishness. You have my support and, I am confident, the support of many others who feel that libraries are revered places for study and work whose services to the community at large are too often under-appreciated.
Hopefully you will not have to go to court to make this point. I merely wished to express my support for your work and my disgust with this legal action. Remember, as you fight this action you are not alone and you are not fighting it for yourself or those who subscribe to your services only. You are, again, doing a public good, affecting people all over the world.
And for this I thank you.

Marjan Alcevski - 22.02.12

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