PD New York Times????

[mightyfelix]

I came across this fabulous resource the other day while trying to track down an old article I'd seen a reference to.

http://spiderbites.nytimes.com/

Click on any year there from 1851-1922, and you can browse thousands of articles from that year and download a PDF scan of the orginal article.

HOWEVER.....

As I was about to post this, raving about what a great source it is for finding PD non-fiction short works, I clicked around on a few more articles, and quickly ran into a snag. Apparently, these pre-1923 articles count towards your "five free articles a month." Is this even ok??? Do PD laws apply differently towards newspapers? I'd like to write NYT an angry letter or something, scolding them for restricting access to information that is clearly public domain and should be freely available to anyone interested in history, society, culture, whatever... But I'm sure they, at least, feel like the law is on their side or they wouldn't do this. Here is their policy on this, as found in their FAQ:

For nonsubscribers, articles from the New York Times archives from 1923 through 1980 are $3.95 each. Views of archived articles outside that date range are free but still count toward the 5-article monthly limit.

[TriciaG]

Here's my take:

Just because something is PD (out of copyright) doesn't mean the original publisher cannot restrict access to them. The original Declaration of Independence is under lock and key.

They cannot restrict our USAGE of them, and if someone took the PDFs and copied them or posted them online elsewhere, they could not do anything about that. But they can certainly set up their website to require paid subscriptions to access their collection.

HathiTrust doesn't allow everyone to download their PD works. You must have credentials from an academic institution (or something like that). Similar thing - restricting access on their website, but they're not restricting the USE of the material once accessed.

[mightyfelix]

Thanks for the clarification. I still think it's pretty slimy.

[VfkaBT]

Thanks for the clarification. I still think it's pretty slimy.

There are these, however:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20521

Several editions, up to July 1918.