Additional detail on MIT and Hoovers

["Ellen Finnie Duranceau" <efinnie@MIT.EDU>]

The Liblicense list has picked up the MIT Libraries' blog story 
about Hoovers, so I thought I would offer a little more detail 
about the language we could not agree to:

We have been subscribers to Hoover's Pro Premium Online, a 
database of company information.  Their terms now require 
licensees to take financial responsibility for fraudulent use - 
even suspected fraudulent use -- by individual users.  We were 
not willing to agree to the terms, and found ourselves with 
access suddenly unavailable to our patrons.

This new requirement may be going unnoticed because of Hoovers 
renewal process, in which an email asks for initials and a 
binding "I agree" click to terms that are linked from the renewal 
email at:

http://www.hoovers.com/global/corp/index.xhtml?pageid=10545

The language we took exception to here at MIT is [emphasis 
added]:

"Hoover's, Inc., reserves the right to monitor your use of the 
Service to ensure compliance with this Agreement and prevent 
fraudulent use. You acknowledge that such monitoring of use may 
include determining whether or not the Service is accessed under 
the account from multiple IP addresses, as well as noting 
excessive downloads or a disproportionate number of users. 
Systematic access or extraction of content from the Service, 
including, but not limited to, the use of "bots" or "spiders," is 
prohibited. If such monitoring indicates you are not in 
compliance with this Agreement or if fraudulent activity is 
suspected, Hoover's, Inc. reserves the right to take such action 
as it deems necessary, including, but not limited to, assessing 
additional charges for users or downloaded records in excess of 
the number authorized, or suspension or termination of the 
account."

[By the way: the number of records authorized for download is not 
disclosed in the contract.]

I would be interested in any comments or relevant experiences 
with this kind of language either from Hoovers or other 
companies.

Ellen Duranceau
Scholarly Publishing and Licensing Consultant
MIT Libraries