Re: single user license agreement

["Robert A. Baron" <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 02:32 PM 7/28/2003 -0500, you wrote:

> Hi - we are receiving many textbooks that include supplemental CDs inside 
> them.  The textbooks are part of our circulating collection. Our cataloger 
> read the single user license agreement and noticed some wording that we 
> think could cause us trouble.  The agreement states that the software must 
> be used "on only one computer at any one time."  No problem.  However, it 
> also states further down that the licensee shall not "loan, rent, or lease 
> the Software or any content."
>
> I have been told that the attorney at our small University cannot be 
> consulted for such matters...so, in your opinion(s), does lending the book 
> with its CD constitute a possible copyright violation?
>
> Thanks for any assistance you can provide!

In any case it wouldn't be a violation of copyright. If anything, it would 
violate contractual provisions that the seller imposes on the buyer. But it 
remains unclear whether such a contract -- which you only learn about after 
you have purchased the item -- is valid. Additionally, usage contracts may 
not be legal if they limit the privileges given under the first sale 
doctrine. (The first sale doctrine gives libraries the right to lend 
copyrighted materials they have purchased.)

I've run across similar limitations that come with CDs. My favorite 
restricts use to the individual purchaser and prohibits the use of the CD 
for "educational purposes."


===========================
Robert A. Baron
mailto:robert@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.studiolo.org