Give the Journals Back to the Scientists: Comment

Commentators like intelligent but flawed papers. The paper by Paul David to which this comment reacts is definitely intelligent. But to my distress I am unable to find flaws. I agree on almost all accounts. The European Data-Base Directive is lopsided. Property rights for scientific knowledge are not always the best solution. The research commons deserve protection. The potential for win-win solutions ought to be explored. Some state intervention can be justified. Given this state of affairs, my comment is tangential. It purports to illustrate the main points of the paper by a little case study. It is a case of which I happen to hold some practical knowledge in my managerial capacity as the director of a Max Planck Institute.