The free Encyclopædia Britannica works

I just received the confirmation that my free accout for Encyclopædia Britannica has been approved. Of course I have to try it immediately. Here is what the old-established 32 books encyclopedia tells us about academic freedom (as “freedom” is only a fork as is on the wikipedia) and liberalism. Enjoy it and compare it to the wikipedia (freedom, liberalism) if you like. I think especially political terms are a good test against the wikipedia. They hardly ever reach the status of “excellent” or even “recommended” articles on the wikipedia as they are abused too often and in other cases even the wikipedia mods are of different opinion.

And there is even a widget about liberalism. Worth trying it:

Being curious, call it suspicious if you want, I could not resist to read the usage agreement of my Encyclopædia Britannica premium account:

About use of content:

You may display, print or download content on the Services only for your personal, non-commercial use, provided you do not remove or alter any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary notices or legends. You may not publish, distribute, retransmit, sell or provide access to the content on the Services, except as permitted under applicable law and as described in these Terms of Use.

You may not engage in systematic retrieval of content from the Services to create or compile, directly or indirectly, a collection, compilation, database, or directory without written permission from Britannica. Nor may you mirror on your own site the home page or results pages of the Services.

As the subscription type is “free access for 1 year” here is what they write about subscription rates and termination of the subscription:

Increases in subscription rates will apply to existing accounts at the time of their renewal and will not exceed the standard subscription rate that has been in effect and posted for at least 30 days. Reductions in the standard subscription rate will not necessarily be reflected in your renewal subscription rate. Customers subscribing at specially discounted promotional rates may be subject to varying rate increases, none of which shall exceed the standard posted subscription rate. …

Your subscription will be automatically renewed unless you cancel prior to the renewal date. You must cancel your subscription before it renews in order to avoid billing of subscription fees for the renewal term to your credit card. Instructions on how to cancel your subscription are available online in the Account Maintenance area …

Well. So let’s be careful to chancel the subscription before one year passes and let’s have fun til then.

One last question remains. Will the great german encyclopedia, the “Brockhaus” step into the same direction and spread its popularity amongst the bloggers? This German encyclopaedia has just publicly considered to stop its printed editions and completely move to online publishing. It would make sense to show people out there the quality of the service first and why someone should pay for an reference work if there is a, generally concidered to be good quality, wikipedia for free!