can someone explain to me why non-commercial creative commons licenses are not open when applied to scholarly articles?

I've heard this statment a lot but I'm not 100% on the underlying logic.

#cc #creativecommons #scholcomm #copyright #licenses

@vickysteeves I’m not sure but maybe because it could preclude use by people who need to photocopy them (for example) for an edu purpose when students don’t have high bandwidth so can’t access online, and a bookstore or something might make a small profit by doing so? I seem to recall hearing something about a situation like this awhile ago.

@clhendricksbc @vickysteeves The general case I’d make is that NC means it cannot be hosted where ads are displayed or printed where money is made – thus distribution via the usual channels is hampered. By itself, that seems to be nothing specific to academic articles but perhaps the expectation is that papers are usually distributed in ways that make money for somebody?

@kensanata @clhendricksbc

so NC is a problem for institutions, not individuals then? those two what you described as common distribution channels are not common for academics or most higher ed institutions but could be common for organizations.

is the problem that NC is too ambiguous about what commercial use? would it be better to have a 'nonprofit' cc license over the NC one? e.g. can be used where $$ is as long as the org or use is not for profit?