Does Information Really Have to be Licensed?    

Discusses the proposed Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code, which will be presented to US state legislatures for enactment. It would 'validate shrinkwrap and other mass-market licenses of information' and establish other electronic commerce rules. Samuelson sees a danger in such licenses, in that consumers are said to have agreed to their provisions by 'token assent' such as clicking 'I agree.'

Samuelson, Pamela. Communications of the ACM (1998). Articles>Intellectual Property>Contracts

Legally Speaking: Does Information Really Want To Be Licensed?  

Although Louisiana and Illinois once passed laws to validate software shrinkwrap licenses, neither statute survived closer review. In the Vault v. Quaid decision, federal judges refused to enforce the Louisiana law insofar as license terms interfered with consumer rights under federal copyright law. The Illinois software shrinkwrap license enforcement statute was subsequently repealed due to industry dissatisfaction with it.

Samuelson, Pamela. Communications of the ACM (1998). Articles>Intellectual Property>Contracts

RoMEO Studies 7: Creation of a Controlled Vocabulary to Analyse Copyright Transfer Agreements    

This paper describes the process of creating a controlled vocabulary which can be used to systematically analyse the copyright transfer agreements (CTAs) of journal publishers with regard to self-archiving. The analysis formed the basis of the newly created Copyright Knowledge Bank of publishers' self-archiving policies. Self-archiving terms appearing in publishers' CTAs were identified and classified, then simplified, merged, and discarded to form a definitive list. The controlled vocabulary consists of three categories describing `what' can be self-archived, the `conditions' and the `restrictions' of self-archiving. Condition terms include specifications such as `where' an article can be self-archived; restriction terms include specifications such as `when' the article can be self-archived. Additional information on any of these terms appears in `free-text' fields. Although this controlled vocabulary provides an effective way of analysing CTAs, it will need continual review and updating in light of any major new additions to the terms used in publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies.

Jenkins, Celia, Charls Oppenheim, Steve Probets and Bill Hubbard. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Intellectual Property>Contracts>Controlled Vocabulary