[Opengenalliance] Fw: [OpenGLAM] Paywalls on digital content

[Guy Etchells]

On 03/02/2014 14:31, Javier Ruiz wrote:
> FYI The view from the open archive community
>
> Forwarded message:
>
>> *From:* Alastair Dunning <alastair.dunning at theeuropeanlibrary.org>
>> *To:* open-glam at lists.okfn.org <open-glam at lists.okfn.org>
>> *Date:* Monday, 3 February 2014 11:22:16
>> *Subject:* [OpenGLAM] Paywalls on digital content
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> There’s a very good blog post on issues related to digitised 
>> resources with paywalls by Andrew Prescott from King’s College London
>>
>> http://digitalriffs.blogspot.nl/2014/02/dennis-paywall-menace-stalks-archives.html
>>
>> Quite a few GLAMs in the UK have been quite successful in getting 
>> private funding from genealogy companies for digitised their 
>> archives. Genealogists, in my experience, are often quite happy to 
>> pay for access this. But this has a knock on effect on scholarship 
>> and researchers, who need to access the data in different ways, and 
>> also do not have the means to pay for it.
>>
>> Is this also an issue outside the Anglo-Saxon world ?
>>
>> Alastair
>>
>> Alastair Dunning
>>
>> Programme Manager, The European Library
>>
>> http://theeuropeanlibrary.org <http://theeuropeanlibrary.org/>
>>
>> (Based in the National Library of the Netherlands)
>>
>> skype: xcia0069
>>
>> twitter: alastairdunning
>>
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>
>
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Whilst I am in favour of Open Data, I also realise that there is no such 
thing as free, someone has to pay. If a government makes data available 
free online the taxpayer foots the bill, not the government, they do not 
have any money.
I support and have supported many initatives to release data to the 
public, I was instrumental in gaining the early release of the 1911 
census for England and Wales back in 2006. I am currently campaigning to 
have the historic civil registers of births, marriages and deaths for 
England & Wales released. At present access to these records is only by 
way of certificate costing £10 each. I and many others over the years 
ask for the to be released to the National Archives or County Record 
Offices where they could be viewed free of charge.
Part of the campaign also includes the digital option of a commercial 
concern digitising the images and making them available under licence 
online. I appreciate this would be at a cost to the user but someone has 
to pay and a subscription would in many cases be far less than trips to 
the archives for free access.
Please view the campaign at http://anguline.co.uk/ohrn.html
We welcome all support.
Cheers
Guy