At Yale, we've had a number of (not infrequent) situations
where,
by virtue of "bad people" finding ways into Yale
accounts or
proxy servers, we will get amounts of massive systematic
downloads from given publisher sites or journals at various
times. When it happens, publishers contact us and together
we've
always taken appropriate action to stop the infringing
behaviour
-- which is generally not from our campus, but presents as
if it
is. I wish this happened less frequently than it does...
it's a
real concern.
(One could argue that if all information were totally free,
none
of this would matter; but at the least, the incidents can
helpfully point out vulnerabilities that need to be stopped
in
case these downloaders go after private information. Or
swamp a
system... But I digress!)
Anyhow, these systematic downloading situations haven't led
any
of the (growing number of) publishers to take us to court.
We've so been successful in working together to solve the
problem. It is, however, important for librarians and
publishers
to agree to work together in this way, whether through a
contract, or "best practices," or whatever it
takes, and to
specify how this will be done and what happens if the
situation
can't be remedied. Ann Okerson
On Wed, 25 Apr 2007, Toby.GREEN oecd.org wrote:
> I've never heard of anyone getting involved in legal
proceedings,
> nor cutting off access. Our position is the same as
Chicago's: we
> post some terms and conditions on our site,
click-through is not
> required, we only negotiate licenses when our clients
request
> one.
>
> Toby Green
> Head of Publishing
> OECD Publishing
> Public Affairs and Communications Directorate
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