This concludes a series of three articles which began in the March/April 2001 issue with a look at the rights and obligations included in licenses. It continued with an examination of negotiating for intranets in the May/June 2001 issue.

There are a number of global issues that should be considered when licensing content for an intranet. To start with, you must first determine what laws apply to the license agreement.

For example, if your corporation is in Florida and you are licensing content from a graphic artist in British Columbia, should the laws of Florida or British Columbia apply to your agreement? When negotiating a license agreement with a content provider in another jurisdiction determine and discuss what laws you want to apply to the agreement. In the event of a dispute, it will then be clear to both parties what laws will apply. You probably prefer to have the laws of your own jurisdiction to apply to the agreement, as they are likely more familiar to you. 

Notwithstanding what the agreement states with your content provider, you also want to be aware of copyright issues in countries where your intranet might be accessed. It is possible that the laws of those countries may apply to the legal use of the content on it. For example, disputes arising from your licensing agreement will most likely be settled according to the laws of the country set out in the license. However, if there are issues of non-authorized use by third parties, then you may have to turn to copyright laws, as opposed to the license, to resolve these issues. This is because the license only governs the parties who sign the license and therefore not necessarily all persons who may have access to the licensed content.
 
 

[Complete article available in print] 
 

 

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