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JISC/PA License concerns

Having read the JISC/PA draft license for electronic material I have some
concerns for libraries.  I appreciate that many of my queries relate to
clauses in square brackets which are optional, however, they do raise
important issues.  What do others think? 

1. Description of "the site" where "the licensee must obtain a Site
License for each geographical location for which it wishes to provide
access to the Electronic Material".  I assume this clause is for licensing
exisitng electronic material, rather than the right to digitise?  Even so,
it sounds very tough for, say, UCL which now has c.15 sites. 

2. s3.2 states that the "The Licensee will ensure that the Data Capture
work is carried out with reasonable care and skill by a competent person". 
How can this be be interpreted or ensured?  Who is to say who is
competent, careful and skilled? 

3. s7.2 states that "Any costs incurred by the Publisher in the delivery
of the Electronic Fixed Format Material shall be borne by the Licensee".
Surely this is not common practice when shipping goods to a customer who
is paying for them? 

4. s8.2.1 says that if the publisher has to withdraw the material, they
shall "[if the withdrawn Item of part constitutes more than {10%} of the
Electronic Material] refund a proportionate part of the ...Fee".  Wouldn't
libraries require reimbursement whatever proportion the material
represents?  10% of 100 articles is a considerable amount of material! 

5. s8.3 says that on receipt of the above notice, the Licensee must
immediately destroy all copies of the said material.  However, if a
library has just spent inordinate sums digitising it, no compensation is
offered.  This implies that if a Publisher suddenly finds out that they do
not in fact own the copyright in something, they can just pull out from
the agreement without compensating the library for their error. 

6. s8.4 states that the library must also "delete or cause to be deleted
such withdrawn material from any and all machine-readable versions of the
Material prepared by the Licensee and by Authorized Users in exercise of
the Rights and shall provide the Publisher with a certificate of an
officer of the Licensee attensting to such deletion"!!!  How could a
library possibly police this??! 

7. s13.2.1.3 says that the publisher warrants that the electronic material
will be "complete or accurate or up to date and the Licensee acknowledges
the need independently to verify the accuracy of all [recipes,
instructions, formulae, drug dosages] with [primary sources for such
information]" !!  Surely it is the publishers job to ensure that the
material the publish is accurate, not the Licensees?? 


Elizabeth Gadd
Project ACORN Manager
 




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