RE: meaning of "systematic"

["Behney, Melissa A. (Information Services)" <mabeh@locust.conncoll.edu>]

It's my understanding from a conversation with a publisher rep. that there
had been instances on university campuses where students, particularly
international students, were downloading entire journal archives, taking
the electronic version out of the country, and selling them. This is
probably an extreme case but I can understand a publisher's/vendor's
concerns on this point.

Melissa Behney
Research and Instruction Librarian
Charles E. Shain Library
Connecticut College
270 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320
(860)439-2444
e-mail: mabeh@locust.conncoll.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Carole Richter [mailto:Carole.J.Richter.8@nd.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 6:22 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu; liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: meaning of "systematic"

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