Re: "Double" Licenses

[melas@ils.unc.edu (Steven Melamut)]

The publishers contract is with the institution.  If there is a subsequent
lawsuit resulting from that contract, the publisher will sue the
institution because that is where the money is.  It is unlikely that
anyone will want to chase students and faculty.

Creating a secondary license serves two other possible purposes:

(1) Educating the end-user as to any restrictions that have been agreed to
by the institution.  It is necessary for someone to make them aware that
there are restrictions upon use of the material.

(2) Giving those restrictions an aura of legality that will deter most
abusers.  The publisher does not want to go to court, they merely want the
terms of the contract to be respected. They certainly don't want to have
to track down every student or faculty member that has used the material.

Perhaps the publishers would agree to forgo these warnings if the
institution wants to explain the restrictions itself.  It is in the
institutions best interests that users do not violate the license
agreements.


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           Steven Melamut
   Kathrine R. Everett Law Library
    University of North Carolina
CB #3385 Ridge Road    Chapel Hill, NC 27599
         melamut@email.unc.edu  
work: 919-962-1194         fax: 919-962-1193
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