Here's an ironic discovery I just made: Germany blocks Project Gutenberg! Whut?!??
Yep:
"We apologize for this inconvenience. Your IP address has been automatically blocked from accessing the Project Gutenberg website, www.gutenberg.org. This is because the geoIP database shows your address is in the country of Germany."
"Project Gutenberg believes the Court has no jurisdiction over the matter, but until the issue is resolved, it will comply."
http://www.gutenberg.org/ 60,000 free eBooks
@gemlog Thank you for coming back to me about this. I was on the right track but hadn't the details. I shall share this with a German friend of mine who lives on this island and has an interest in the subject. Thanks!
@iankenway The block should not effect your friend - the same as it normally does not effect me here in Canada.
I just happened to want to look up the available audio books on Project Gutenberg in my morning while I was proxied through Germany and got quite a surprise!
I'm not sure. His VPN is directed to Germany!
@iankenway Oh. Then yes, he will be blocked.
Is he geeky at all? He could get a free shell account and use that to proxy via ssh instead.
@iankenway Of course, he could just not use his vpn when he wants something from the gutenberg project ;-)
@gemlog Of course - or he could point his VPN to Ukraine or Japan etc.
@iankenway I've never used one and don't know what choices he has. I suspect they all offer a different mix of end points.
I only proxy to places where I have shell access (and permission to use -D )
@iankenway Sorry, it was mostly discussed in that thread. Basically, German copyright law granted a longer period of time for some works than in other places and the German publisher appealed to the courts.
The GB project complied by blocking ALL access to German IP addresses.
It's a mess because of our ridiculous copyright laws.
This is their apology:
https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html