forces of open vs. cash cows

Whenever cultures of knowledge ownership (aka publishing) sense a threat to their monopoly of prosperity, they assert their claim to ownership. But knowledge is free....or it should be. In the latest incident of over-reaction to a public good by the publisher of one of the world's most expensive family of data products for libraries and indiiduals, the American Chemical Society has decided that a resource developed in the public interest by the National Library of Medicine, PubChem, is a threat to their considerable revenue stream. Why has this non-profit society of chemists begun to line up against the best thing to happen to high school chemistry in the 21st century? If you think your voice can be drowned out by 15,000 chemists, perhaps consider joined the concerned consortium called the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.