An attempt with a brand new family of colon-infected folders (not databases), works nicely now withthe new snapshot. While the same commands in the old version still generated the FODC0002 error:
So both of these worked nicely in the new snapshot (strings refers to files and folders - not database paths):
collection("/home/larsj/terra/Synsegn/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2014092382210_001")
as well as
doc("/home/larsj/terra/Synsegn/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2014092382210_001/Alto_13.xml")