The article says he wanted to distribute the papers for free on a file-sharing website — sort of a nerdy Napster, I guess. He must think there’s a clamoring among the masses for free access to academic treatises.
Frankly I don’t think JSTOR has a leg to stand here. If they don’t own the content then restricting access to it becomes their business model.
JSTOR didn’t actually write or own or purchase any of the information that they are trying to control.
I hope this guy gets a good lawyer who points out the nature of JSTOR’s business is basically to tell people what they can or can’t read.
“He must think there’s a clamoring among the masses for free access to academic treatises.”
There is. And it would be beneficial to society if he did manage to get the out of print documents in a format where they could easily be accessed.
In terms of document preservation, if it’s not shared, it’s going to get lost.