Phil Windley has some comments on academic paywalls, or the practice whereby academic papers are hidden within subscription-only journals and aren't getting read by people who do their searching on the web:

The net has changed how information is exchanged and the power of linking cannot be ignored. Ideas that flow freely are more competitive than those that are restricted in some way. Ironically, academics has always prided itself on the free flow of information, but the net has turned that on its head to the point that now academic researchers are the ones who find themselves in the most restricted space of any innovators in the IT space.