Fixing the Flaw in OA Mandates That Have Opt-Outs

Stevan Harnard, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal, holding the Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Sciences and is also Affiliate Professor in Electronics and Computer Science at University of Southampton, UK on the Open Access Mandate by the University of California:
Yes, there's a flaw in the University of California Open Access (OA) mandate ["Open Contradictions," Editorial, The Daily Californian, 12 Aug 2013], and, yes, it has to do with the fact that U of C authors can opt out of compliance with the mandate.
See also Michael Eisen's comment on the OA policies of the University of California.

Publishers offer their “solution” to public access

CHORUS (for ClearingHouse for the Open Research of the United Status) is clearly an effort on the part of publishers to minimize the savings that will ultimately accrue to the federal government, other funders and universities from public access policies. If CHORUS is adopted, publishers will without a doubt try to fold the costs of creating and maintaining the system into their subscription/site license charges – the routinely ask libraries to pay for all of their “value added” services. Thus not only would potential savings never materialize, the government would end up paying the costs of CHORUS indirectly.
Michael Eisen. Blog. See also this skeptical post and this list of assembled links.

Apotheosis of cynicism and deceit from scholarly publishers

Michael Eisen on the Association of American Publishers’ reaction on the open access movement.

20 years of cowardice: the pathetic response of American universities to the crisis in scholarly publishing

20 years of cowardice: the pathetic response of American universities to the crisis in scholarly publishing

Xenophobic scientific publishers: open access aids foreign enemies

Xenophobic scientific publishers: open access aids foreign enemies

The OA Interviews: Michael Eisen, co-founder of the Public Library of Science

The OA Interviews: Michael Eisen, co-founder of the Public Library of Science