Just to be clear, when you say “the government’s dime,” you mean “the U.S. government’s dime.” If an article is written by a U.S. Government employee in the course of their employment, it constitutes a “Work of the United States Government,” and is not eligible for copyright under title 17, U.S.code. If it is the product of a U.S. government grant, the government will reserve some rights, and make signing copyright assignments with publishers that do not respect those rights a violation of the terms of the grants. Just as authors are free not to agree to the terms Elsevier (or other publishers) impose with their copyright assignments, those publishers are free to decline to publish articles that are not covered by copyright or where the rights assigned are limited because the work was the result of a government grant. But of course with much research being the result of government funding, they have tried to buy enough congressmen to prevent the government from imposing conditions (like open access after an embargo) on those works. Which strikes me as very similar to a child insisting that they’ll accept free ice cream ONLY if it has sprinkles on top.
