Dear Marta, I fully agree with your suggestion concerning the numerous journals that you mentioned. Having a free on-line version of these journalist would certainly be efficient in solving the problem of access to knowlwdge, which is indeed very important. (My understanding is that the topic of arms trade was closed on this mailing list!) On the shorter run, however, I propose creating an off-shore website, which is outside the reach of US/Canadian/European courts. The declared intent of this website would be to violate the copyright laws by downloading the ready PDF files from ScienceDirect through the library access that we have, and uploading it to this site -- which makes them freely available for anyone interested. The idea would be to accept anonymous uploads, and thus share the burden (and liablity) for maintaining the site. I think it would be much harder to fight the overpriced publishers if we followed all the laws and rules. These laws were made to *maintain* and *stabilize* the current situation, and not to help those who want a change.
Something must be done. That much is clear.
The problem is that profit is a very good organizer, while getting volunteers is never easy. I would be quite interested in hearing the history of TAC, how it started, etc. Best wishes, Gabi