Regarding this, since the archives are in the public domain, wouldn't it be possible for any third party (e.g. google books) to ask and obtain permission to pho

Regarding this, since the archives are in the public domain, wouldn't it be possible for any third party (e.g. google books) to ask and obtain permission to photograph the originals ? Anyway the ethical thing to do here is to lobby jstor (a non-profit organization) to make reprints free.