Open access makes research outputs freely available online to anyone who wants to read or use them, an idea relatively new in Vietnam. While this practice benefits society, it disrupts the revenue model of traditional scientific publishers. The tension around open access manifests the tension between the people and capitalism. We argue that academics alone cannot prevail. Government intervention is needed to make selfarchiving a clear legal right. Research organizations should build domestic open repositories and redesign their evaluation methods to promote open access. Authors should never pay to be published.