OK, just to muddy the waters some more, below are the Oxford English
Dictionary's definitions for "Open access" for both a noun and
adjective.  The OED is considered  THE definitive source for the
English Language.  Please note, the term has existed in library
science long before the existence of computers and online journals.

-- Mitch Turitz

Open access, n. and a.

>A. n.
>
>     1. Unrestricted admission or access (in early use freq. with
>reference to accepting or permitting sexual advances); an unimpeded
>approach; usu. with to and noun or pronoun. Also: the theory or
>policy of being accessible to all.
>1602 T. DEKKER Blurt Master-Constable sig. E3v, By this meanes your
>secret friend may haue free and open accesse to you, vnder the
>cullour of pricking you lessons. 1611 G. CHAPMAN May-day II. iv. 29
>She..will die many deathes rather then by any friends open accesse
>to her, be whip't naked with the tongues of scandall and slander.
>1715 B. GRIFFIN Love in Sack I. iv. 33 She..will dye a thousands
>Deaths rather than any Friend's open Access to her should blast her
>Reputation. 1808 W. SCOTT Marmion VI. ii. in Poet. Wks. (1857) 140
>[MS The tower..gave an open access where] A parapet's embattled row
>Did seaward round the castle go. 1847 New Englander & Yale Rev. 5
>91/1 The preacher has frequent open access to the people, even one
>day in seven being given up to his use. 1888 Amer. Naturalist 22 602
>Like all bays with open access to the ocean, the Bay of Fundy has a
>pelagic fauna. 1910 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 4 142 The subjects and
>citizens of each of the High Contacting Parties shall..have free and
>open access to the Courts of Justice in said countries. 1962 Econ.
>Jrnl. 72 1054 The need for the less-developed countries to have more
>open access to the markets of the advanced countries. 1998 World in
>1998 (Economist Publ.) 117/2 North lies Russia, which already has a
>monopoly of export routes, and whose commitment to open access is
>highly doubtful.
>
>     2. Library Science. Direct and unrestricted access for readers
>to the shelves on which publications are kept; the system or policy
>of such access.
>1894 Library Nov. 344 There is absolutely no novelty about the
>principle of open access. 1934 Archit. Rev. 76 168/1 The new library
>has one important feature that distinguishes it from most large
>libraries in this country and elsewhere; I refer to the system of
>'open access'. 1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Dec. 1532/2 The
>long-standing fight about open access..is won now... Behind lay a
>deep-seated fear..in some librarians..of anyone from the outside
>world actually having the run of the shelves. 1997 Jrnl. Amer. Hist.
>83 1443/2 The ACLU..has from its very beginnings deposited all its
>records on a yearly basis in the New York Public Library and
>permitted open access to them.
>
>     B. adj. Usu. in form open-access.
>
>     1. Library Science. Of or relating to open access (sense A. 2).
>1948 Science 14 May 498/2 The principle of the open-access
>collection seems never to have gained general acceptance [in Japan].
>1974 Jrnl. Afr. Hist. 15 347 Although the official 'public' library
>in Tananarive formerly had the open-access system, one found no
>files of local newspapers on its shelves. 1986 Austral. Jrnl.
>Chinese Affairs 15 107 Whether material is open access and available
>for loan..depends on considerations such as how many copies of a
>work the library has in its collection.
>
>     2. gen. Open or accessible to everybody.
>1967 Amer. Internat. Rev. 57 194 The fault lies in the way by which
>open-access resources{em}sub-marginal waters in this case{em}are
>reduced to tenure control. 1983 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 1 Oct. 937/1 The
>introduction of an open access general practitioners endoscopy
>service may result in many unnecessary examinations being performed.
>1997 M. COLLIN & J. GODFREY Altered State vi. 188 House culture['s]
>open-access concept was constantly being re-interpreted to suit the
>set and setting of new adherents.

>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date:    Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:15:30 +0100
>From:    Stevan Harnad <harnad@ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>
>Subject: Definition of Open Access
>
>Rick Anderson is unhappy with "my" definition of OA:
>
>>  > > > SH:
>>  > > > OA means free online access to published, peer-reviewed journal
>>  > > > articles.
>>  > >
>>  > > RA:
>>  > > No, Stevan, that's _your_ definition of OA.  It is by no means the
>>  > > only one.
>>  >
>>  > SH:
>>  > No, Rick, that's the BOAI definition, and that was where the
>>  > word OA was coined:
>>  > http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
>>
>  > RA:
>>  Actually, the Barcelona definition departs significantly from Stevan's.
>>  It does not require content to be either peer-reviewed or formally
>>  published in order for it to be considered OA, nor does it share
>>  Stevan's narrow focus on self-archiving.  More significantly, the BOAI
>  > definition is itself not the only one.

<snip>
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