Re: Double Licenses

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

Marjorie Normand, Assistant General Counsel of John Wiley, writes:

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From: Marjorie.Normand@wiley.com
Date: 1  Feb 99 12:49 EST
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Message-ID: Re: "Double" Licenses

As a lawyer for John Wiley & Sons, Inc., which recently inaugurated its
Wiley InterScience online service for over 300 electronic journals, I have
a keen interest in the discussions of "double" licenses which have been
appearing on the Lib-License site.  These are some of my responses, based
on the comments of others as well as my experience in drafting the
licenses for Wiley InterScience.

In the case of InterScience, it is a misnomer to label this issue that of
"double" licenses.  A customer subscribing to an InterScience journal,
whether such customer is a library, other institution, or individual,
takes out a license.  The customer
,s authorized users simply agree to
follow certain rules before they access the online service.  The issue is
that of "informed consent": how to best make the users aware of - and how
to confirm their willingness to abide by - rules of use.

We have attempted to draft both our click-on customer licenses and User
Terms of Service agreements to be reasonable and understandable, and have
incorporated a Privacy and Data Protection Policy to protect the identity
and preferences of users, an obligation we take seriously.

Click-on agreements used properly are the most efficient way to deal with
standard terms and a large number of licensees and users.  Clearly, not
everyone agrees about the desirability and enforceability of "click-on"  
licenses or agreements in this context, and I note that the debate has
been joined in this forum.  I would simply like to say that we would not
have adopted this procedure if we did not think it was valid under the
law.  In response to one comment, I consider that if the terms of a user
agreement and a subscriber license are incompatible, it is a result of
faulty drafting and not inherent in the process.

Marjorie W. Normand
Assistant General Counsel
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
MNORMAND@JWILEY.COM