Hello,
One response from the vendor/publisher perspective –
Here at SPIE Digital Library, our Support team gets an automatic notification when the number of downloads/full-text views at a library exceeds a certain limit within a one-hour period. Then, we look at the library’s usage log to see patterns – for example, when all articles from older issues of journals are being downloaded in sequential order, with many downloads per minute, it is likely to be unauthorized systematic downloading rather than legitimate usage. In these cases, we may restrict downloads from that IP while we contact the library and ask them to investigate the usage.
Thus far, we have not had any libraries respond to us that the excessive usage was caused by text or data mining by an authorized user -- but of course this is just anecdotal.
Lola Estelle, MLIS
SPIE Digital Library Specialist
+1 360 685 5580
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics
From: David Prosser <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2018 08:30:46 +0000
I wonder how a vendor can tell the difference between a 'pirate' and somebody who is text and data mining. For those of us who believe that TDM is a legitimate (and potentially increasing) use of a corpus of material these restrictions are hugely concerning.
David
From: Karin Wikoff <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2018 11:29:11 +0000
I believe that at least some database vendors have algorithms in place to try to detect attempted mass downloading of their content, mostly from countries where copyright is not recognized, or by people acting as agents for such. If there is suddenly a big spike in downloading at a given institution, with usage that is far above the normal range, it can look like pirates downloading content like that. It was ACS that cut us off all those years ago, and one other time I was contacted by a vendor to ask if we could check before they cut us off (can’t remember which vendor/publisher that was). Activity outside the “norm” raises a red flag when they are trying to protect their content from pirates. I get it. All the more important to have a good line of communication with your vendors (which is getting harder and harder to maintain as customer service personnel keep getting reduced).
Karin
--
Karin Wikoff
Electronic and Technical Services Librarian
Ithaca College Library
953 Danby Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 1-607-274-1364
Fax: 1-607-274-1539
Email: [log in to unmask]