Unfortunately it isn't enough to read the German constitution. You
have also to read the influential legal interpretations and court
decisions.
I have made a suggestion for a university mandate in 2007 at
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/4369539/
But I have to take into account that not only jurists against OA see
the constitutional barriers. OA friends like Eric Steinhauer or Gerd
Hansen (advocating a copyright law change that publicly funded
scholars would have the right to deposit in repositories after a 6
months embargo) are also against mandates. You can read Hansen's
influential refutation (2005) of the Pflüger/Ertmann mandate
suggestion in German at:
http://www.gerd-hansen.net/Hansen_GRUR_Int_2005_378ff.pdf
If you all would applaud Sale's interpretation of the German
constitution - that wouldn't change nothing. German jurists only read
German legal journals or books. And I cannot see any discussion on the
"OA via mandates" problem in the German OA community (discussions are
very rare there).
Klaus Graf
Received on Sat Feb 14 2009 - 21:46:10 GMT