Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cdromlan
Date:         Thu, 24 Dec 1992 09:30:34 MST
              <CDROMLAN@IDBSU.BITNET>
From:         Dan Lester <ALILESTE@IDBSU.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: license agreements

>I have one MAJOR problem with the OEDII's network policy.
>No network version of the software is available, nearly a year after the
>software debut.  If people don't bother to put out an on-time version of the
>network software, then I don't think they have a right to restrict network
>use. What if you only HAVE a network?  They want to charge you extra for YOUR
>time and effort in getting the damn thing to work on a network?  Or prohibit
>you from using it at all?

   I agree that the lack of a network version is a disappointment.  However,
the publisher is under absolutely NO obligation to produce a network version,
now or EVER.  Libraries have absolutely no right to network a non-networked
version just because they might wish there were one available.
   As the owner, the publisher has the right to put ANY restrictions he/she
might wish, even if you and I, as customers, might think they are stupid or
ill-advised.  Nobody has ONLY a network.  Any library that has
a network could always disconnect one of the workstations
from the network and have a standalone workstation.  It might require the
purchase of another CDROM drive, but that is trivial compared to the cost
of the OED II.
   Yes, there may be some extra work on our part to make a product work on
our network.  But there is also extra work on the part of the CDROM vendor,
including dealing with our calls for support.  There is probably some guru,
somewhere, who has never called for support from anyone, but I've never
met or heard from him or her.  8-)
   Yes, the vendor can, and will, and should, prohibit us from using the
product in an inappropriate way for which we are not licensed.  Remember,
we don't have to like the rules, but we DO have to follow them if we want
to stay out of trouble.
   I find the suggestions that we have the right to network something whether
the vendor permits us to or not to be very disappointing.  I usually agree
with Ms. Heise, but in this case am quite frustrated with her suggestions.
It is this type of talk that gives the few vendors who want to put
ridiculuous and troublesome traps in their software the ammunition they
need to do so.

>One *SHINING* example of this is the Patent Office's CASSIS product. We
>contacted them for help with a PARTICULARLY buggy release, only to discover
>that we couldn't run it on a network because we didn't have a network
>licence. We couldn't get a network licence, because there was no network
>version of the software.

   Once again, like it or not, such is life.  Could it be that the release
was "buggy" because you were trying to network a product that couldn't and
shouldn't be networked?  Weren't you and your colleagues aware of what
product you were obtaining?

   Jennifer's example does illustrate one of the problems of obtaining
CDROM products, particularly when we are networking them.  It is vital that
the people requesting the product (perhaps reference or documents librarians)
communicate their needs and wishes with the systems folks (to be sure they
know of the demands the product will place on the network) as well as with
the acquisitions and serials folks who will be doing the ordering and/or
contract signing.  If all are not communicating effectively, the chances
of problems increase geometrically.

>Jennifer Heise                           Net: jahb@lehigh.edu
>Reference Dept.,                         Phone: (215) 758-3072
>Fairchild-Martindale Libraries #8A,  Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015


dan

*****************************************************************************
* Dan Lester                          Bitnet:   alileste@idbsu              *
* Associate University Librarian      Internet: alileste@idbsu.idbsu.edu    *
* Boise State University                                                    *
* Boise, Idaho  83725                 BSU and I have a deal: I don't speak  *
* 208-385-1234                        for them and they don't speak for me. *
*****************************************************************************