Re: Triple Licenses

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Back to Bernie Sloan's "triple licensing" question:  I talked this over
with one of our contract/copyright attorneys at Yale.  She believes the
question of which license would trump which in the case of the 3-layered
Vendor/State library/end user case was impossible to answer without seeing
each specific agreement and determiing whether any provisions are or could
be in conflict, for starters.  Let's say the end-user contract contains
clauses that state that no other agreements govern the subject matter in
question (not uncommon apparently).  In that case, if the Library
agreement with the vendor (via the State Library) contained such a clause,
the user could argue that her terms of use were governed by that third
Library agreement alone.  In any case, our attorney's opinion was that, as
in all contract questions, the specific language at issue is key and one
needs to know what it says in order to answer Bernie's question.

Ann Okerson
Ann.Okerson@yale.edu