4 ms·

yeah, it looks like they are still under traditional copyright. It's just that the purchase price is $0.00. Free as in beer. Still, that's pretty cool!

kfogel 11y ago
Well, right now it's still technically illegal to download them, unless & until Springer actually says some different license. Not that anyone would be prosecuted, obviously; one could clearly claim that it was obvious that Springer intended to distribute them at the very least for personal non-commercial use, even if Springer didn't say so explicitly anywhere. If the terms are even more liberal than that, so much the better... But it ain't so till Springer says it's so :-).
- 47 11y ago
  The website says "Open Access: This content is freely available online to anyone, anywhere at any time."
- adrianm 11y ago
  Why is it technically illegal to download them?
  - bobo123 11y ago
    The quote says it is legal to download them --edit: apologies, should be a response to parent
  - pki 11y ago
    there is somewhat of a difference between "purchasing something for 0.00 with appropriate distribution after creating an account at a webshop" and "torrenting a pdf"
  - vidarh 11y ago
    It isn't, assuming Springer doesn't have contracts with author precluding it. Springer is either the copyright holder or is authorised to distribute, and they are explicitly making the works available for download. You don't need any additional permission. Any license changes they publish are important to establish your right to make any subsequent copies, though.
- emddudley 11y ago
  The site's terms and conditions [1] state: "You may solely for private, educational, personal, scientific, or research purposes access, browse, view, display, search, download and print the Content." [1]: http://link.springer.com/termsandconditions http://link.springer.com/termsandconditions
aravindet 11y ago
The only issue with that is sites like archive.org might not be able to legally cache and serve these. Edit: It’s still a Very Good Thing.

kfogel 11y ago

Well, right now it's still technically illegal to download them, unless & until Springer actually says some different license. Not that anyone would be prosecuted, obviously; one could clearly claim that it was obvious that Springer intended to distribute them at the very least for personal non-commercial use, even if Springer didn't say so explicitly anywhere. If the terms are even more liberal than that, so much the better... But it ain't so till Springer says it's so :-).

47 11y ago
The website says "Open Access: This content is freely available online to anyone, anywhere at any time."
adrianm 11y ago
Why is it technically illegal to download them?
- bobo123 11y ago
  The quote says it is legal to download them --edit: apologies, should be a response to parent
- pki 11y ago
  there is somewhat of a difference between "purchasing something for 0.00 with appropriate distribution after creating an account at a webshop" and "torrenting a pdf"
- vidarh 11y ago
  It isn't, assuming Springer doesn't have contracts with author precluding it. Springer is either the copyright holder or is authorised to distribute, and they are explicitly making the works available for download. You don't need any additional permission. Any license changes they publish are important to establish your right to make any subsequent copies, though.
emddudley 11y ago
The site's terms and conditions [1] state: "You may solely for private, educational, personal, scientific, or research purposes access, browse, view, display, search, download and print the Content." [1]: http://link.springer.com/termsandconditions http://link.springer.com/termsandconditions

aravindet 11y ago

The only issue with that is sites like archive.org might not be able to legally cache and serve these. Edit: It’s still a Very Good Thing.