what a Green OA self-archiving mandate mandates, and then to state explicitly how or why it violates authors' academic freedom. But be careful not to conflate Green OA self-archiving mandates with Gold OA publishing mandates: The latter would require authors to publish in Gold OA journals rather than their journals of choice; or they would forbid authors to publish in journals that embargo Green OA. Such mandates would indeed be constraining authors' academic freedom. But Gold OA publishing is not what most OA mandates require. They just require Green OA self-archiving. (See ROARMAP -- and you will see that there are already some Green OA mandates in Germany.) Law people? in Germany? claim that something like the NIH/Wellcome requirements would violate researchers' rights granted by article 5 of our constitution.... ...Stevan, you should take note that I and others do not embrace that view about the illegallity. We report what people from German funding agencies, eager to put a mandate in their grant agreements, tell us about the views of their lawyers. You may call this hearsay, but it is a matter of fact that any attempt to introduce stonger mandates have been turned down by these lawyers, citing the constitution. And yes, there have been university professors who have claimed  their freedom to publish being restricted when asked to publish electronically (!). The Heidelberger Appell (don't confuse with Heidelberg Appeal) is actually an ugly mashup of opposition to Google Books, Open Access and general resentment about missing respect for