I hope this is fake news but fear it is not.
Can anyone check for us how difficult it really is to get to
www.gutenberg.org from Germany?
This situation has considerable similarity to the successful attempt to get Random House to pay the estate of Joseph Goebbels for quotations used in serious non-fiction. Many posters here (but not me) thought it was just fine to expect English language publishers to respect German Life + 70 in that instance:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=259324
Because Gutenberg.org wants to distribute entire books, rather than just quotations, the moral case for the defendants is weaker than in the earlier dispute. Now, I took the freedom to quote, and read, side in the other thread, and I am taking it here.
As for the web aspect, Project Gutenberg is wrong to cooperate with the German government by what amounts to self-censorship. Gutenberg should immediately remove code attempting to stop its site from being seen in Germany. If it is serious about this, Germany can then bear all the cost and opprobrium of constructing the great firewall of central Europe.