[Dspace-general] [Dspace-tech] License agreement for each item

[MacKenzie Smith]

Hi Mao,

MIT is about to implement something like this for our own use. We will 
split the current submission license into two parts: a "DSpace license" 
that governs what we (the Libraries managing DSpace) can do with the item 
as its steward, and a separate "use license" to govern what the 
author/submitter wants to allow the public (or whoever can access the item) 
to do with it. For the former we'll use a fixed license that looks pretty 
much like the one in DSpace now, and for the latter we'll offer some of the 
Creative Commons licenses. I've attached a draft of what our UI screen 
might look like, and we're hoping to do the necessary programming in the 
next two months.

If this is something of general interest we'd be happy to think about 
adding it to the open source system later on... just let us know. And on a 
related note, a Creative Commons representative will be coming to the 
DSpace user group meeting on March 10-11 to answer questions about their 
status and plans for the coming year -- for example, I know they've been 
tweaking their base license to address institutional concerns about 
liability and so on. Should be interesting!

As for enforcement by DSpace -- the system administrator can set access 
control for items as necessary (at the bitstream, item, or collection 
level) and these are enforced using whatever authentication/authorization 
method you've implemented (logon/password, digital certificates, LDAP, 
etc.). But *use* licenses -- those that govern what a particular user is 
allowed to do with an item once they have it -- aren't really enforceable 
without implementing nasty encryption techniques which get in the way of 
fair use. At MIT we've decided to rely on copyright law and licenses like 
the Creative Commons for use of our material, and to let the courts enforce 
them if that ever proves necessary.

I hope this answers your question!

MacKenzie

>Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 16:00:48 -0500
>From: mao ni <maoni at email.unc.edu>
>To: DSpace <dspace-tech at lists.sourceforge.net>
>Subject: [Dspace-tech] License agreement for each item
>
>Dear All,
>
>Happy Holidays!
>
>Our E-thesis collection wants to apply flexible rights administration for 
>each item, that is, every submitter could choose one from a set of license 
>agreements like Creative Commons. For example, an author might limit his 
>item to non-commercial use only.
>In this case, it is convenient for authors to pick up the license they 
>want instead of the same license agreement for the whole collection.
>I have done this by storing the DC copyrights metadata with each item.
>My question is that if DSpace has implemented the rights limitation or not 
>when the bitstream of the item is going to be viewed? For example, if the 
>license of the item is not allowed to be viewed yet, will DSpace disallow 
>the bitstream to be accessed?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mao
>
>School of Information and Library Science
>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
>Email: maoni at ils.unc.edu
>Tel: (919) 962 - 0184


MacKenzie Smith
Associate Director for Technology
MIT Libraries
Building 14S-208
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02139
(617)253-8184
kenzie at mit.edu 
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