Dear Sirs, Before deciding of using arXiv in a systematic way, I would like that =20= there be a clear statement of its policy and commitments; a statement =20= which, likely, the organisers and many of us take as understood and =20 granted, but which I have been unable to find. To be more explicit, what about the possibility of the system being, =20 in future, exploited economically? What about the possibility of it =20 being sold to a commercial company? When downloading an article to the arXiv, the author is asked to =20 grant 'a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this =20 article'. I think the author has a right to know that this license =20 will not be used, in the future, for goals which would be in contrast =20= with the present (understood) ones, or even opposite to them. Last year I wrote a message in this sense to the list =20 'categories' (categories@mta,ca), where arXiv has been frequently =20 proposed as a way of disseminating articles. In December 2006 there =20 was a discussion about these points in a blog kept by John Baez http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2006/12/=20 arxiv_policy_statement.html This is part of a posting by John Baez, on this blog: "Many people like to have some idea of what an organization seeks to =20 do, or is committed to do, before they do business with it. For this reason, it=92s unusual for such an important entity as the =20 arXiv not to make a public statement about its goals and commitments. =20= Consider, for example, the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to =20 Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, and its many signatories, =20 or the statement by the Wellcome Trust supporting open access, or the =20= Wikimedia mission statement and bylaws, or the Google code of conduct =20= and privacy policy. " (end of citation) As far as I know, there still is no policy statement available. One =20 can only read, at the head of the 'arXiv Advisory Board' page: "Please note that all arXiv policy decisions are ultimately made by =20 Cornell University Library." Will the Cornell University Library make its arXiv policy public? With best regards Marco Grandis Dipartimento di Matematica Universit=E0 di Genova Via Dodecaneso, 35 16146 Genova Italy e-mail: grandis@dima.unige.it tel: +39 010 353 6805 http://www.dima.unige.it/~grandis/=