Siddharthan, the computational biologist, said, “I have seen that students, even from modest colleges, learn online via open courseware and also enthusiastically read scientific literature.”

He, therefore, believes that blocking access to scientific literature would be “severely detrimental” for such students. According to him, the solution may lie in encouraging the scientific publishing industry to explore affordable access options for the general public. 

“A parallel is the panic about Napster, BitTorrent etc in the movie and music industries 20 years ago. That problem was solved not via bans, but via affordable legal services like iTunes, Amazon Prime, and Netflix offering the same content,” he explained. 

“People will be willing to pay, within reason,” he added.

(italics mine - DW)