Re: American Statistical Association license terms

[Kimberly Parker <kimberly.parker@yale.edu>]

I wanted to share a piece of information which may (or may not!) be at all
useful in dealing with this particular problem.  Since these ASA journals
are available from Catchword, and I know Catchword has general terms of
use for all the materials available from their service, I went and dug out
the Catchword Use Guidelines url:
<http://www.catchword.com/guidelines.htm>

There is a statement right near the top that says: "The journals on
CatchWord's system are published by a number of different publishers as
indicated in our title list. These guidelines are intended to cover all of
the journals on the system. Any variations to these guidelines should be
negotiated directly with each publisher concerned."

This says to me that you might be able to use the ASA journal on Catchword
and argue that the ASA terms of use don't apply *as long as you find the
Catchword Use Guidelines acceptable*.

I highlight that last point because since the last time I looked at the
Catchword terms of use and the present, a phrase (which I either didn't
notice or didn't exist before) has appeared in the Guidelines to the
effect of "the subscribing institution is responsible for any access to
the journals through its IP address or proxy server within that IP
address".

I'm now choking on that particular point and searching frantically to see
if I printed off a copy of the Guidelines from when I first read and
approved them.

(The other interesting aspect of this is what happens when you have two
licenses of manifest assent that appear to be in conflict.  The Catchword
thing says it is all you need to worry about.  The ASA thing says it
applies -- what would a judge say?  Who know!)

FWIW.

--Kimberly Parker

At 08:20 PM 2/11/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>UW-Madison recently tried to negotiate license terms for the American
>Statistical Association to access their e-journals via Catchword. We were
>told that they "cannot modify the license for individual subscribers" and
>that "the license must be the same for all who subscribe to [their]
>journals."  Their terms and conditions are posted at
>http://www.catchword.com/asa/tandc.htm . There were two clauses that we
>found problematic and proposed to change: termination without prior notice
>(section 4) and indemnification (Section 6c).
>
>The representative from ASA did say that they would review feedback from
>subscribers later in the year and possibly modify the terms. Has anyone
>else been in contact with ASA about their terms and conditions? Are there
>others who have opted not to activate access via Catchword for this
>publisher due to their terms as written?
>
>Any feedback, to the list or directly to me, would be appreciated.
>
>********************************************
>Aimee Glassel, Electronic Resources Librarian
>General Library System - CTS * Memorial Library, Room 312
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>ph: 608/262-7120 (NEW) * fax: 608/262-4861
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