RE: Institutional subscription question

["John Cox" <John.E.Cox@btinternet.com>]

Chen Xiaotian's posting is a confusion of different scenarios. 
What I set out to state is the strict legal position, which is 
based in contract (for the personal subscriber) and tort 
(inducing breach of contract by the library).

As I have said in another posting, publishers are concerned about 
damage to current subscription revenue.  No publisher is going to 
initiate proceedings based on a bequest - the subscriber is dead, 
and the library cannot be held responsible for the donor's will. 
Doctors, in my experience, do not leave copies of medical or 
other learned journals in their waiting rooms - more likely 
mass-market magazines, which are not the issue here.

There have been a number of legal actions brought by publishers 
over the years, most of which are settled out of court.  In 
recent years publishers successfully stopped a subscription agent 
in the USA from ordering personal subscriptions and exporting the 
copies to Asia at the institutional subscription rate, aiming to 
enrich himself at the publishers' expense. Cases have been 
brought by groups of publishers to stop the sale of 
'international student editions', which are priced low 
exclusively for students in developing countries, to students in 
the USA and in other developed countries; this was settled out of 
court in 2003, and the issue there was directly analogous to the 
personal/institutional subscription here.

John Cox

Managing Director
John Cox Associates Ltd
Rookwood, Bradden
TOWCESTER, Northants NN12 8ED
United Kingdom
E-mail: John.E.Cox@btinternet.com
Web: www.johncoxassociates.com


-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Chen, Xiaotian
Sent: 16 May 2008 00:02
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Institutional subscription question

Bernie's example may not be practical and it is not likely to 
become common practice.  However, here are some common practices:

* Individuals donate their journal collection to library after 
retirement or death.

* Doctor's offices or any place has a waiting room keep personal 
subscriptions for customers to read.

Can John provide case name or citation number of the "successful 
legal action" against this practice?  It seems to contradict to 
US Code (17 U.S.C. 109) mentioned by Kevin Smith of Duke.

---
Xiaotian Chen
Electronic Services Librarian
Bradley University
Peoria, Illinois 61625
http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~chen/index.html