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> There has never been any contractual issue that I am aware of with going > under the Oracle hood and using the data. It is your data....... I think Rob's point isn't that it's a license issue for the end user, but rather the vendors who make the ILS software. It used to be more typical for there to be varying license agreements for how you wanted to "sell" applications that depended on another vendor's database. So the ILS vendor, if it wanted it's database structure to be "open" to it's end-users for local customization would essentially have to pay more to get this and end up passing this cost to the end-user. Essentially, every customer would end up paying indirectly for the ability to do this, regardless of if they did it or not. We're not talking about data here, but how a third party's programs and software is used in the vendor's software. It's a complex issue and can be one of the things that make companies nervous about "viral" licenses such as GNU as opposed to BSD licenses. A quick example: Imagine a service for recommending books. They allow all the libraries apis and web services for accessing this service, but they keep it on their machines. Now they only need one licenses for the database vendor. They later decide to develop a way to install local servers. Now that means they either have to re-negotate with the database vendor or just tell those installing the local servers that they have to negotate for the database software and support themselves. Jonathan T. Gorman Research Information Specialist University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana 216 Main Library - MC522 1408 West Gregory Drive Urbana, IL 61801 Phone: (217) 244-4688