NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/bit/listserv/cdromlan/1948

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 3.3 KB | 66 lines

Comments: Gated by [e-mail]
Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!MHS.UNC.EDU!BARKER.ILS
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cdromlan
Date:         Mon, 21 Dec 1992 13:47:00 LCL
Sender:       "CDROMLAN@IDBSU - Use of CDROM Products in Lan Environments"
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From:         "Barker, Scott" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: OED/Licensing
Lines: 53

Ed Perry suggested that some CD-ROM vendors still view their products
with a "book" mind set and aren't aware of the difference between books
and electronic sources....

Actually, the "book" anology isn't so bad.  What is bad is that some
vendors are much more restrictive of their electronic products than they
would ever think of being with a book.

Take the OED on CD-ROM (there are many other examples as well) where you
are in flat violation of the license agreement if you use the product on
a network, even with just one user.  To me that is like saying to people
who purchase the print version - you can read this book only while
sitting at a round table in room xyz - square tables or reading in any
other room is forbidden.

I make that analogy because with the CD-ROM on a network and a single
user - they are in essense saying you can use it from computer X that has
a certain characteristic (a local CD-ROM drive), but not from computer Y
with a different characteristic (a network CD-ROM drive).  How different
is that from saying you can read their book at a round table but not a
square one, or use the CD on a blue computer but not a white one?
Remember, the license isn't addressing multiple use at all - only the
kind of computer you can install the product on.

If the license followed the book analogy they would be saying you can
have one person "read" the book/cd at a time.  If you have more users
than that, you need extra copies.  (The Borland "use it like a book"
philosophy.)  Who cares where the person is while they read the book/cd
or how they get it?  What is important is the number of people who are
using it at that moment.

Carrying the traditional book analogy farther - you don't purchase 23,000
copies of a book just because your library serves 23,000 patrons.
Instead you buy as many copies as will be needed for "reasonable" use by
your patrons.  If you have a heavy demand item you might buy 5 copies,
with less demand 1 copy.  Sometimes all the copies will be checked out -
in which case you can think about purchasing more.  If you don't you may
have upset patrons, if you do - you fork ever the $$$ for another copy.

Same should go for CD-ROM software.  CD-ROM vendors shouldn't be saying
to us that we need to buy 100 copies because we have 100 users on our
network.  They should be saying we need to buy as many copies as we'll
have simultaneous users.  As I said in my last post,  the VAST majority
of successful software vendors have moved to simultaneous use licensing
in the last couple years.

If some publishers were just as resonable with their electronic use
policies as they are with print policies, we'd all be much better off.

Scott Barker
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
eMail: [e-mail], Phone: [phone]