Book People Archive

Re: Google and UMich

[Moderator: This submission and the next one came in more or less
 simultaneously.  I've converted some umlauted characters in this
 one to plain ASCII, the format used on this list; any mistakes
 on the converted characters are mine. - JMO]

As I have shown in a weblog comment at
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/2643658/#2643958
I have spent a lot of time to find out that UMich has the same
IP-blocking policy like Google if foreign works are concerned. I have
no explanation for the 1865 date after which foreign users are usually
blocked by Google or UMich.

(If you are asking: How can I filter Mbooks - there are also licensed
sources from Gale etc. as "electronic resources" I do not want in the
list of MIRLYN matches? The answer: Try "keyword" as additional
keyword.)

Geibel died in 1884. All three Geibel works in MIRLYN with Mbook
access (published in 1871-1873) are not free for foreign users. Peter
Suber has shown at
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2006_09_03_fosblogarchive.html#115766385751334831
that no one outside the US has access to the Geibel test item (Gedichte, 1873).

Friedrich Spielhagen died in 1911 (source: MIRLYN) - not free for us
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015014810520

Sammlung spanischer gedichte. Ausgewahlt und mit anmerkungen versehen
von Adolf Kressner. Kressner died in 1907 - the work is not free for
us.

Homer / von Georg Finsler. Finsler died in 1916 - not free for us.

Studien /von Johannes Scherr. Scherr died in 1886 - not free for us.

Aus Amerika: uber schule, deutsche schule, amerikanische schule und
deutsch-amerikanische schule. By Rudolf Dulon who died in 1870 - not
free for us.

Aus natur und wissenschaft. By Ludwig Buchner who died in 1899 - not
free for us.

Einfuhrung in die theorie und den bau der neueren warmekraftmaschinen.
Von Ingenieur Richard Vater. He died in 1919 - not free for us.

Gesprache uber Gott und natur und uber unsterblichkeit. Von dr. J. C.
Bluntschli. He died in 1881 - not free for us.

Truly a sad litany!

In short: I haven't found any German book published after 1864 and
before 1923 that is available as full text for us although the author
is according MIRLYN longer dead than 70 years.

I have checked also some French titles with the same result (e.g.
"Histoire de la philosophie Cartesienne") - UMich doesn't care for the
author's year of death although it is provided in MIRLYN.

Thus the Geibel case is no exception. There are hundreds or thousands
of other German (and French and Italian and ...) Public Domain books
which are available  for US users but not for foreign users. UMich
students or staff have no privileges: if an book is regarded as
US-copyrighted by UMich they can only do a search. If the book is in
Fraktur (and published after 1922, the critical year for US access)
this possibility is worth nothing because Google's OCR cannot handle
Fraktur.

If there is a clear indication in MIRLYN that the author is dead more
than 70 years (like Geibel) and the book was published before 1923
UMich can give wordwide free access to the Google files without risk.
Regarding books before 1900 there is a very low risk that they are
copyrighted in the country of origin with a 70 years pma term. It
would a reasonable rule to give also free access to them.

I am very curious whether Mr Willett has any detailed explanation for
the strange Google/Umich copyright rules and the IP-blocking of
foreign users.

Klaus Graf