[75] in Information Retrieval
[Public-Access Computer Systems Forum
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim McGovern)
Thu Mar 19 12:51:19 1992
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 12:52:23 EST
From: tjm@Eagle.MIT.EDU (Tim McGovern)
To: elibdev@MIT.EDU
I've sent for the paper referenced below -- Tim
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 10:21:03 CST
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
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From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
Subject: Network License Agreements
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.MIT.EDU>
2 Messages, 86 Lines
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Subject: Concurrent Use Licensing
From: mnelson@cdplus.com
As the President of CD Plus, a CD-ROM publishing business, I have been
following the discussion on PACS-L regarding database licensing
with great interest. We at CD Plus have had to think through many
of the issues mentioned. I believe there is a solution, and it is
one that is gaining popularity very quickly in the microcomputer
software networking arena: concurrent use licensing (CUL), aka
simultaneous use pricing.
Basically, CUL is a means of pricing multi-user access based on
maximum number of simultaneous users.
CUL provides standard, consistent pricing for the entire spectrum
of potential customers: from the small 100-bed hospital to the
sprawling 30,000-student CWIS.
An important facet of CUL is media independence. Whether the data
is available on CD, floppy, magnetic disk, or any other media is
irrelevant to the pricing. This avoids the nightmare of constant
re-evaluation due to technologies leap-frogging one another.
CUL also eliminates the need for the database producer and customer
to individually negotiate site licenses, which may entail licenses
for hundreds of different institutions for tens of different databases.
An institution ultimately pays for all concurrent use access.
If it wants to offer access to non-affiliated users, the institution
is still paying for that usage. In the extreme case, if a site
wants to open up a database to the entire Internet, the database
producer should have little concern, assuming that the institution will
need to purchase a number of simultaneous usage "slots" to
handle the user base.
CUL has been adopted as the network pricing standard by the MMA
(Microcomputer Managers Association). Those currently supporting
the standard include WordPerfect, Novell and Microsoft. The National
Library of Medicine has also implemented a concurrent use licensing
policy for its databases.
Steve Ifshin, who is with our company, recently wrote a position
paper outlining CUL for database licensing based on the MMA
standard. A version of the paper is to be published in an upcoming
issue of the NFAIS Newsletter. Requests for the position paper
may be addressed privately to sifshin@cdplus.com. Please
include your full postal address.
Mark Nelson
CD Plus
333 7th Ave., 6th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212-563-3006
mnelson@cdplus.com
*-----
From: Ivy Anderson <ANDERSON@BRANDEIS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Network License Agreements
Liz Lane writes (I'm paraphrasing) that database use by multiple libraries
via a WAN "cuts deeply into the publisher's market, and pricing is designed
to reflect this."
Not necessarily so. To use an example from a meeting I have just attended,
many libraries cannot afford to purchase these databases individually, and
shared purchase is the only possible option. If the shared price is
concomitantly high, we won't be able to afford that either. Vendors
need to distinguish between a theoretical market and an actual market.
I believe a similar argument can be made for CD-ROM databases. Publishers and
producers decry the paucity of their sales and fear further erosion of an
already limited customer base, but their market penetration would be much
higher if the databases were more affordable.
The "real marketplace" understands this -- that's why prices on retail
goods, real estate, etc. drop during a recession. Where are the "sales"
(i.e. bargains) in the library market?
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Ivy Anderson | Tel: (617) 736-4671 |
Head of Systems and Access Services | Bitnet: anderson@brandeis |
Brandeis University Libraries | Internet: anderson@binah.cc. |
PO Box 9110, Waltham, MA 02254-9110 | brandeis.edu |
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