If you recall (1, 2, 3), Germany's new copyright law took effect one year ago today. Under its terms, electronic rights to works published in Germany before 1995 would vest in publishers unless authors expressly told their publishers during 2008 that they wished to hold those rights themselves. Of course, if authors regained the electronic rights to these works, they could use them to authorize OA.
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.
