Comment by pdonis

> they were able to arrange for their license to allow over 10000 schools, libraries, and other institutions to provide free access to walk-in users.

Sure, but that still only covers a miniscule fraction of US taxpayers. Plus, you have to walk in to the school, library, or other institution, instead of just being able to use your web browser at home.

> A large number of the material on JSTOR wouldn't be online at all if not for JSTOR, because they have put a lot of time and money into digitizing back issues of journals that the publishers probably would have never gotten around to.

This is a genuine value add, but it could have been paid for by the government directly without then having the material behind a paywall.