The Social Science Research Network Has Jumped the Shark

> A CC-BY license permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the work, including for commercial purposes, so long as appropriate attribution is given

This is a good thing. Building upon the published research of others is the entire foundation of academic publications. The "appropriate attribution" is the citations which are often the primary metric by which work is recognized as impactful and important.

My guess is the author is primarily unhappy about the making explicit that everyone, not just other academic researchers in the same field, can participate in this. But again, this is normal and good. As a society, we want people to turn research into real commercial products or to incorporate research into policies, regulations & best practices.