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"Licensing"
As many readers will know, the past few weeks have seen a couple of controversies over end user license agreements (EULAs) and Internet services. In the library world, Yankee Book Peddler, an order fulfillment service, announced that they would introduce such an end user license whenever someone logged in to their ordering database. The license [...]
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In our previous post we talked about the relatively easy fair use call involved in the Brownmark Films case decided by the district court in Wisconsin. Before the court even got to that issue, however, it had to decide a procedural issue that has potential ramifications for scholarly publishing. Who can grant an [...]
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When the trial of the Georgia State copyright infringement lawsuit closed last month, the Judge asked both sides to file post-trial briefs, outlining their proposals for findings of fact and conclusions of law that they think the court should make. They are extensive documents, representing the last chance each side has to make its arguments, [...]
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Back in December I wrote about the lawsuit that has finally been filed against UCLA claiming that the policy of streaming digitized view for course-related viewing is copyright infringement. Late in January UCLA responded with a motion asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state [...]
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The recent news that the Canadian Recording Industry Association has reached a settlement agreement with artists is not, strictly speaking, about scholarly communications. But it does give rise, I think, to several reflections about the way copyright works for all of us, including scholars.
The story, which is explained here and here, is [...]
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“The sky is falling,” Chicken Little cried. I don’t want to emulate that panicky poultry too closely, but recent events have raised some concern in my mind over the continued viability of copyright’s “first sale” doctrine, upon which so much library practice depends.
First sale is the rule that once a lawful copy of a [...]
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Access Copyright is the Canadian equivalent of the U.S Copyright Clearance Center. Like the CCC, which is helping to finance litigation against Georgia State University designed to force US universities to pay more and higher licensing fees for course materials, Access Copyright is also on a quest for ever greater income.
I and others have [...]
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If the box that says “I Accept” (regarding a website’s terms of use) really is the most dangerous place on the web, as I wrote several weeks ago, it is getting even riskier out there. For a long time, a relatively safe rule-of-thumb has been that EULAs (end user license agreements) that forced you [...]
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The most dangerous place on the Internet may well be inside that little button that says “I Agree.” The opportunity to bind oneself to a contract almost unconsciously abounds on the Internet, and the immediacy of the Web encourages click-through agreements that are almost never read and, if they are, impossible to understand.
The Electronic [...]
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As Duke University’s first Scholarly Communications Officer, Kevin Smith’s principal role is to teach and advise faculty, administrators and students about copyright, intellectual property licensing and scholarly publishing. 
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