Free digital books
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All Synthèse books published before 2005 appear to be free to download in .pdf form from Springer. I haven't verified that this is true for IP addresses outside of universities with a subscription, but I think it is.
This include the series Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, but there are likely to be other titles of interest to some LLOG readers.
[h/t Kai von Fintel]
Rachel Cotterill said,
December 29, 2015 @ 8:31 am
I can confirm that it works just fine from a non-university wifi connection — what a great find :-)
Dick Margulis said,
December 29, 2015 @ 9:04 am
My IP address is not connected with any university, nor do I have any kind of relationship with Springer. I followed your link and was able to download a PDF with a single click and without completing any sort of contact form.
[(myl) Thanks — that's what I thought, but I couldn't easily check at the moment.]
A.M. said,
December 30, 2015 @ 7:59 am
Were you able to download the entire book? Here in Cairo, I can download the table of contents with no problem, but I'm being asked to buy each chapter or the whole book.
Lai Ka Yau said,
December 30, 2015 @ 8:56 am
It seems that the books can no longer be accessed…
languagehat said,
December 30, 2015 @ 9:35 am
Yup, the fun's over.
DWalker said,
December 30, 2015 @ 10:57 am
Right, I was not able to access the books as of 12/30/2015 at 9:00 AM Mountain time in the US.
a George said,
December 31, 2015 @ 10:00 pm
What a good spot of advertising for Springer! Well done. Obviously it is a pity it was not said from the outset that this would be for a limited time only and what the limit was. That was the case a few years back with a social sciences publisher who wanted to celebrate their anniversary, and all their articles were freely downloadable for a month. You could afford to absorb the general quality, because now you only had to spend time, not money. Similarly with the digitisation of the Scientific American: for one month the important period 1856-1909 was freely available. I did a lot of historical research during that month, research that I would have had to go to a library for.
If the downloads from Springer have not been bona fide, i.e. a mass download took place in instances ("well, it might come in handy, and since it is free and does not take up space, why not"), I can understand a chagrin at Springer's. But then there would have been other ways to limit the download to that supportable by the advertising budget: put a limit on the daily download or impose a curfew. Workarounds would be elaborate, and only the few would be able to operate them.
Anyway, I take this brief offering as a way of celebrating a new and better 2016 — we already have it in Europe.