Most electronic publications are now available under licence.
The terms of such licences have varied from publisher to publisher and have at times undermined 'fair use' or 'fair dealing' provisions in copyright legislation. Information about licensing of electronic products has been made available to publishing and user communities through the Liblicense Web site . The terms of licenses have reflected the struggle between publisher, author and user for control of the benefits of electronic publication. Traditionally academic authors have assigned all rights to commercial publishers, but the value of such right is increasingly realised by authors or their employers, who may only license the publisher for specific forms of publication or retain certain rights. Likewise users or the librarians who represent users' interests are asking that certain uses be permitted in licenses without further payment to a publisher.