RE: meaning of "systematic"

[Carole Richter <Carole.J.Richter.8@nd.edu>]

I understand JSTOR and IEEE both to mean that users cannot download issue
after issue in their entirety. That seemed perfectly logical to me, even
if a bit of a gray area to define precisely. But another colleague then
asked why!!! And I found that I had no real answer! I suppose if we get
the journal in print, a faculty member or student CAN make personal copies
of every single article if they want to, can't they? Sorry to sound naive,
but the more I thought about it, the less sure I was that the publisher
has hard ground here. Of course it seems a little greedy and aggressive to
download and print reams of paper...the issue or more...but are we really
able to police that? If I'm way out on a limb here, I'm sure everyone will
jump in to saw it off very quickly!

Carole Richter Pilkinton
Electronic Resources Librarian
University of Notre Dame Libraries
(574) 631-8405
richter.8@nd.edu

At 11:41 PM 6/1/02 -0400, Rick Anderson wrote:
> > Have you any views, or can you refer me to any authoritative
> > interpretation of "systematic" in this context?
>
>I would suggest that your mistake was in asking the publisher to interpret
>the language for you.  Instead, I think you should have let the ambiguity
>work in your favor -- come to a good-faith understanding, within your
>institution, of what "systematic" means, and then abide by it.  "Good
>faith" is essential -- I'm not suggesting that you should use ambiguity as
>an excuse to take undue liberty.  But you can be sure that if you ask the
>publisher to intepret the terms of the license, the interpretation given
>will be strict.  And then you're stuck with a documented exchange.
>
>-------------
>Rick Anderson
>rickand@unr.edu