Copyright laws are changing in Germany. Unfortunately it looks at those access to materials in electronic format will be even more restrictive in German libraries.
Also these changes may directly affect you if you published works in Germany (i.e. from a German publisher) before 1995. From my understanding, you have one year to declare that you want to retain rights to distribute your work online (e.g. in the form of an e-book). If you don't, this right will stay with the publisher. And this right pertains to German and non-German authors alike.
Klaus Graf on the H-Soz-u-Kult listserv discusses this in detail and also provides sample letters one can use to send to publishers.
NOTE: I'm not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice. Nor do I purport to be an expert translator of German legalese.
http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/forum/id=930&type=diskussionen
Thanks for spreading the word, see also
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_08_26_fosblogarchive.html#1387416690550296132
Posted by: Klaus Graf | September 02, 2007 at 07:22 AM