Dear Anita,

Thanks for taking the AMICO Press release to the NINCH meeting. There are a number of points that can be raised regarding AMICO's position on these concerns - all of which we addressed in our planning phase:

Re Contract law and Copyright Law - AMICO's licenses specifically state that they do NOT limit Fair Use and are designed to enable uses beyond Fair Use.

Re Liability - AMICO has defined infringement of its agreements as failure of the licensing institution to act in a responsible manner following notification or awareness that one of its users has breached the terms of the agreement. Institutions are not held liable for the actions of users, but are expected to enforce the agreement responsibly.

Re Termination - AMICO member museums are guaranteeing access to the orignials and the documentation as it is in the Library, so that the Universities could have access should their subscription lapse. Remember, museums are in the business of preservation

Re AMICO's target audience - while the first contstituency addresses will be universities, AMICO is going to make its library available to K-12 and Public Libraries in the coming years.

Re ongoing payment for license - The cost of the license is far less than the cost of 'doing it yourself' even if the rights issues did not preventing this approach. Consider the costs of locating rights, negotiating and paying individual royalties. But universities simply don't have the rights to digitze a large number of things in their collection. The fee is an annual one because the library will continue to be updated and to grow.

Thanks for reporting,

jt