Klaus Graf reports that German readers do not have free online full-text access to all the public-domain books that Google is digitizing. By contrast, it appears that Americans do have such access. Klaus can get full-text access only by using Anonymizer with a US proxy. Eva Hornung reports that Google is blocking Irish users as well.
(PS: I've confirmed this with Klaus for at least one test case, Hamilton Wright Mabie's 1896 Books and Culture. I have full-text access from Brooksville, Maine, USA, through the link in the previous sentence. Do you? The book should be in the public domain under the laws of every country on Earth. Can anyone explain why Google is rationing access this way?)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/11/2005 01:21:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
