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Re: Perpetual access
Sara Randall wrote: > Looking at the responses to this question, perpetual access might be less > of an issue in the cases where the library physically has the data at > their site (or designated location). In the case of CD-ROMs or locally > loading data retention of the data after discontinuing the subscription > may be negotiated. For these instances the library already has the > resources to continue to make the information available to the user. > > However, having access to the data may not be enough. If the data is > provided in proprietary format that requires vendor supplied software > support issues could arise. If the library is no longer paying a license > fee, they are presumably no longer getting support for this software. So > what happens if there are problems with the software? Perhaps it was > written on a now obsolete version of an operating system. > As the Legal Advisor to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, I am intimately involved with licensing data sets to the Social Sciences Data Archive (SSDA) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I also oversee the licensing of our other digital statistical products provided to the public and research centers. Drawing on my own experience in this matter, I was pleased to read Sara Randall's concise practical analysis of the perpetual access question being currently addressed by the list. I would like to point out that this analysis made a very clear distinction between purchase of the means of providing the data/information (ie- cd-rom etc..) and subscription to a vendor's on-line data/information service. >From a strictly legal point of view, the first instance is usually one of sale of the medium (with a licensing of the content), while the second instance is that of a service agreement allowing subscriber to access data, without purchasing the means by which the data is supplied, along with a licensing agreement relating to data/information so accessed. These two legal models reflect different economic models, different practical issues and even differences in philosophical orientation. While providing a subscription via cd-rom is analogous to providing a printed copy of the subscribed material, a subscription to a vendor's data base is a wholly new invention, typical of the possibilities opened by digital technology. The topography of this new digital environment is still in its embryonic stage, and its development will be influenced by those issues so succinctly outlined by Ms. Randall. _______________________________________ Brian Negin, Legal Advisor Israel Central Bureau of Statistics Tel: 972-2-6553200 Fax: 972-2-6553543 _______________________________________
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