Re: Confidentiality language and the netLibrary license

[David Goodman <dgoodman@princeton.edu>]

Joe, not that I have bothered to look, but the details of your mortgage
are undoubtedly a matter of public record -- and have been in most states
for many generations. They might even be posted to a web site.  The amount
I and each of my neighbors pay for property tax certainly is.

How public institutions do business and what contracts they sign is of
obvious and proper concern to the public.  As in nominally private
institutions there is actually very substantial public support through tax
subsidies and direct grants, the same could be said.

Looking at it from another angle, the public has wisely decided for some
time now, that matters of fair competition can not safely be left as

> a working, operating assumption of an ethical society.

Dr. David Goodman
Princeton University Library
and
Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University
dgoodman@princeton.edu