Diane Grovergrover@uw.edu

LIS 550Fall 2010

Licensing for Electronic Resources

Licensing: Crash Course in the Basics

Why?What is a license?Typical elements in a licenseLicense “terms of death”Reviewing a real licenseLicense support

Licensing

WHY?

What is a license?Written agreement between 2 or more partiesA grant of rightsBased in contract lawCopyright and Fair UseWide variationNegotiable

If you remember only one thing…

Contract law overrides copyright and fair use

Typical license elementsParties: licensee and

licensorDescription of product

offeredDefinitionsAuthorized usersAuthorized siteEach party agrees WarrantiesTerms of UseRestrictions

ConfidentialityLiabilityForce MajeureTerm and terminationPerpetual accessGoverning lawLegalese: entire

agreement, severability, breach

NoticesSignatures, dates

Typical license elementsParties: licensee and

licensorDescription of product

offeredDefinitionsAuthorized usersAuthorized siteEach party agrees WarrantiesTerms of UseRestrictions

ConfidentialityLiabilityForce MajeureTerm and terminationPerpetual accessGoverning lawLegalese: entire

agreement, severability, breach

NoticesSignatures, dates

Additional elementsCalled: “amendments”, “exhibits”, “addendum”,

etc.“Business agreement”: price, price increases,

cancellations restrictions, etc.For consortium, may list each libraryIP address ranges

ETC

Reading/evaluating a licenseIdentify problematic termsNote omissionsAssess riskDevelop a negotiation strategy

Six “terms of death”1. Indemnification: don’t indemnify a provider

They should indemnify you2. Don’t take responsibility for user behavior3. Unreasonable termination4. Jurisdiction: governing law and venue5. Disclaimer of warranty6. Alteration of terms without notification

Second tier issuesPerpetual accessCourse reserves, coursepacksScholarly sharingDefinition of a site (geographical restrictions)ILL and document delivery rightsRecord keeping required for ILLUser confidentialityDisability access

OmissionsUse a checklistBe sure all important points coveredDon’t trust verbal promises; get it in writing

General Principle: Evaluate RiskProbability of problems

User behaviorVendor/publisher behavior

Penalties/consequencesFor the userFor the libraryFor the publisher/vendor

Likelihood of penalties being invoked

Negotiation principlesUnderstand the importance of the resource to your

collection and/or usersSeek expert advice: peers, managers, attorneysIt’s not personal! (“my state law requires”, “my

library is not allowed to”, my manager/attorney won’t allow me to agree to”)

Play fair, play nice, don’t burn bridgesKnow who has final authority/responsibilityKnow when to walk (call it “take a break” and leave

the door open to the future)

Successful negotiation: now what?Issues in managing license information

Interpretation of unclear or missing termsRecord keeping

LegalPractical

Communicating terms to staffCommunicating terms to usersResponding to unauthorized use allegationsUpdating/re-negotiation

Trends and ToolsElectronic resource management (ERM) and

license mappingConsortiaNISO SERUONIX-PLVendor “license banks”

ResourcesElectronic Resource Management Initiative

http://www.diglib.org/pubs/dlf102http://www.diglib.org/pubs/dlf102

LibLicense: listserv and resources:http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml

Publishers’ model licenseshttp://licensingmodels.com/

California Digital Library: http://www.cdlib.org/vendors/checklist.html

NISO SERU http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/RP-7-2008.pdf

ONIX-PLhttp://www.editeur.org/21/ONIX-PL/

Practice LicenseRead Rick Anderson’s Chapter 7 on reserve. Read

sample license agreement linked from the course page. Post your thoughts on the following questions:

Identify “terms of death” as described in Rick Anderson’s work.

Identify other issues you think would be of concern to institutions such as the UW

What terms did you expect to see are missing?What other questions do you have about this

agreement?

Thank You!