John Cox' mentioning of Carfax brought to my mind that there
are 
quite a number of journals which probably only survive
because of 
the few libraries which can afford comprehesive collections
in 
some subject or are funded to do so and will pay even the
most 
outrageous prices, plus the network of editors, advisory
board 
members etc. that receive the journal for free and guarantee
at 
least a limited availability of the journal at universities

throughout the world. A prime example of this are the former

Gordon & Breach Journals that have been taken over by
Taylor & 
Francis without price reduction (even if their ridiculous
price 
increases did not continue as before). In such situation, we
have 
no problem in accepting donations by an editorial or
advisory 
board member that happens to be associated to our site.
However, 
such donations always occur with a time delay of at least a
year, 
more often two years, therefore they are no replacement for

regular subscriptions, which we could not afford anyway
(because 
the publisher has priced itself out of the market long ago).
For 
practical reasons alone we would never contemplate to
substitute 
a regular subs against a donated one, but we won't turn off
a 
donation. As to the question whether it is legal or not, it
all 
depends on the contract the professor has signed, and it is
his 
risk not ours as libraries. We also have an analogue of the
first 
sale doctrine in European copyright law as well. And if back

issue sales are legitimate, then back issue donations to get
rid 
of those old volumes are also. To speak of theft here, is a

perversion of the law, and nothing than the usual tactics of

intimidation and wishful thinking.

As to your mentioning the personal subscription fraud issues
this 
is an entirely different issue, as it concerned the clearly

fraudulent practice of agencies (black sheep among
subscriptions 
agents) not end customers buying at the personal price and 
selling at the institutional price (or some reduced price to

undercut legitimate agents sales).

As already mentioned, the case for electronic access is
entirely 
different. The first copy doctrine doesn't apply here. Today
we 
again have access to the hugely over- priced former Gordon
& 
Breach journals (some of them being journals for which
T&F itself 
had formerly launched rival journals, like Liquid Crystals
for 
Molecular and Liquid Crystals, both of which now coexist and

probably will do so until the editors-in-chief die out), but
not 
because we buy them but because we get them essentially for
free 
as part of the Taylor & Francis ST(M) package that is
offered as 
an add-on to an institutions portfolio. I think this amply
shows 
how absurd some of these cases are. It is for a reason if at
many 
institutions the free editorial copies are the only one
around. 
And to make one thing perfectly clear: if a professor joins
an 
editorial board and recommends a journal for purchase we
have to 
ask him to suggest other journals for cancellation, and get
his 
colleagues approval or support for that, just like with any
other 
journal. Its essentially a null-sum game.

Best regards,
Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, Stuttgart University Library


Universitaetsbibliothek
Universitaet Stuttgart
Holzgartenstrasse 16
70550 Stuttgart

Tel. +49-(0)711-685-64731
      +49-(0)711-685-64731