[gopher] Need suggestions regarding proposed Gopher History Archive contract

Hi John,

Thank you for the thoughtful response. Your points regarding the physical/digital issue are well taken and you are not the first to raise them. We are slowly making changes to reflect this issue but at this point the deed modified as it is should suffice for our purposes. Let me clarify points below.

I am uncertain that I can represent that I am the owner of this data.

We are declaring you the owner of the collection, not necessarily the owner from a content or copyright sense. Similarly, if you were donating your collection of Beatles memorabilia, we know you aren't the copyright holder or the only one to own a pair of Mickey ears.

Could I simply sign something authorizing Stanford to archive, preserve, etc. the collection, so far as I have the power to do?

The Deed is the "simple" sign over for Stanford. We need to show the provenance of the collection and the deed is the way we do that. It has more legalese than is necessary for your collection but is our mechanism for starting the process. You aren't taking responsibility for every bit of data included and due to the nature of the collection Stanford understands that you did not create the data you have curated.

If Stanford intends to use its ownership of the material to remove the ability of others to access it through other means, this is not an overall benefit to the community.

In no way would Stanford try to stop others from using the data. The point of Stanford having a copy is to be sure a copy is saved "forever" for use specifically by students and faculty and also by the general population. Clause 5 clarifies that at this point Stanford is committing to preserving the data but will not be able to provide access to it until the point that it has been "processed." Some people expect that they give a donation to Stanford and can find it in the library catalog a week or two later. It takes longer than that and Stanford wants to be sure the donor understands this. In the case of the Gopher collection, there are multiple sources for access and this isn't an issue. We are working on an access mechanism for our digital repository but that is likely some time off.

I hope I have addressed your concerns and that you are willing to move forward. I don't really have flexibility for changing the document more than I have to account for the nature of the collection. It is more of a formality in this case since, like you said, the data is readily available on the internet. It just happens to be a formality I have to follow.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Best,

~Susan

From: "John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org>
To: "Susan L Rojo" <srojo@stanford.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 2, 2012 12:11:48 PM
Subject: Re: [gopher] Gopher History Now Archived at ibiblio.org

Hi Susan,

Thank you for re-sending. The document made it this time.

I have reviewed it. I would be quite pleased to see this collection housed at Stanford. I hope the material can be preserved with the best possible access for everyone.

The agreement, however, appears tailored to physical (non-digital) items, and as such I still have the following concerns:

I am uncertain that I can represent that I am the owner of this data.

I certainly collected it via a gopher crawl. As such, perhaps one could state that I am indeed the owner of the collection as a whole; however, for something so easily copied across the Internet, this language strikes me as regressive and quite possibly inaccurate. Stanford obviously would have an interest in maintaining it; could I simply sign something authorizing Stanford to archive, preserve, etc. the collection, so far as I have the power to do?

The combination of clause 2 and 5 also concerns me. As this data is already generally available to researchers on the Internet, if Stanford intends to use its ownership of the material to remove the ability of others to access it through other means, this is not an overall benefit to the community.

I do not know what degree of flexibility you have in these matters. I would suggest, incidentally, that these questions are likely to arise with increasing frequency in the future, as more and more artifacts of historic interest are digital-only. Would you like to proceed further?

Thanks,

-- John

On 03/30/2012 04:44 PM, Susan L Rojo wrote:

Hi John,

Not sure what that glitch was but try the attached.

Best,

~Susan

From: "John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org>
To: "Susan L Rojo" <srojo@stanford.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 1:18:25 PM
Subject: Re: [gopher] Gopher History Now Archived at ibiblio.org

Hi Susan,

The attachment on this (and all the other messages you sent) didn't make it through - it was present but empty. Can you double-check and try resending?

-- John

On 03/14/2012 05:50 PM, Susan L Rojo wrote:

Hi John,

Attached and ready for your review is the Deed of Gift for yourGopher collection. If you have any questions, please let me know. Otherwise, please print out two copies, sign both and return them to me at the address in my signature.

I have confirmed that we can transfer the data from the UNC site as you suggested.

Thank you again for your patience and your willingness to work with us.

Best,

~Susan

From: "John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org>
To: "Susan L Rojo" <srojo@stanford.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 2:11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [gopher] Gopher History Now Archived at ibiblio.org

Hi Susan,

To answer your questions:

1) The easiest way to transfer the data to Stanford would probably be for someone there to simply download it from the UNC site.

2) I have no specific knowledge of data that should be restricted from view. However, having said that, this is a copy of data that was sitting out there on the Internet. It would be naive of me to attempt to give an authoritative answer to that question.

3) I do not own the copyright to most of these files, with a few exceptions. (Data from my own server is included.)

4) PO Box 393, Hesston, KS 67062. 620-367-2347.

-- John

On 12/15/2011 02:51 PM, Susan L Rojo wrote:

Hi John,

Thank you for letting me know.

Below are a few questions I have to complete the deed of gift for review by my manager. Once he approves it, I will send it to you for your agreement or further discussion.

How do you think we could best transfer the gopher data to Stanford?

Do you think there is data in the collection that should be restricted from view for any reason?

Do you own copyright to the files you will be donating?

What is your address and phone (for the official document)?

I also wanted to confirm that Stanford is planning to be a long term custodian of the collection but at this time will not be providing access to the data. This should be okay since the data can be accessed at UNC.

Best,

~Susan

From: "John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org>
To: "Susan L Rojo" <srojo@stanford.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 9, 2011 1:26:20 PM
Subject: Re: [gopher] Gopher History Now Archived at ibiblio.org

Hi Susan,

No problem. As far as I know, that is the only copy UNC is maintaining. It is part of their large permanent data collection.

-- John

On 12/08/2011 06:41 PM, Susan L Rojo wrote:

So sorry for not seeing this earlier and sending the follow up message!

I appreciate your response and would like to pursue this. Do you know if UNC is keeping a copy somewhere in addition to the website you sent below?

Best,

~Susan

PS. I'll be back in the office on Tuesday so may not respond until then.

From: "John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org>
To: "Susan L Rojo" <srojo@stanford.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 5, 2011 7:04:14 AM
Subject: Re: [gopher] Gopher History Now Archived at ibiblio.org

Hi Susan,

Thank you for following up with me. Since we last chatted, I found a home for the material at the University of North Carolina's iBiblio project. The data lives here:

http://torrent.ibiblio.org/doc/internet-gopher-archive-2007/181

http://torrent.ibiblio.org/doc/quux-org-gopher-mirror-collection-2006/182

I would be happy to have a copy at Stanford as well, but I am not sure if it is a good fit; a deed of gift is perhaps hard to apply to this kind of material, which can be simply copied at will. If you want to pursue it, I'm open to that; but at the same time, given its home at UNC, I'm OK with just leaving it there.

-- John

On 12/02/2011 06:35 PM, Susan L Rojo wrote:

Hi John,

My desk has cleared a bit and I am wondering (once again) if you are interested in donating your collection of Gopher materials to Stanford. If so, I will send you a few questions about the collection, draft a deed of gift for you to review, and then get the files transferred to Stanford.

Please let me know if you are interested.

Best,

~Susan

From: "John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org>
To: "Susan L Rojo" <srojo@stanford.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 7:41:48 AM
Subject: Re: [gopher] Gopher History Now Archived at ibiblio.org

On 08/11/2010 06:44 PM, Susan L Rojo wrote:
> Hi John,
> Congratulations on having your collection hosted by
> http://torrent.ibiblio.org. I wanted to check in to see if you are still
> interested in having it preserved at Stanford as well.
>
> Best,
> ~Susan

Hi Susan,

Yes, I am still interested in having it at Stanford too, if that's still
on the table on your end.

-- John

--

Susan Rojo
Manager, Digital Media and Collections Projects
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
AKA Mollie Mavendorf in SL
@digiarchivist
650.721.2752
srojo@stanford.edu

--

Susan Rojo
Manager, Digital Media and Collections Projects
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
AKA Mollie Mavendorf in SL
@digiarchivist
650.721.2752
srojo@stanford.edu

--

Susan Rojo
Manager, Digital Media and Collections Projects
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
AKA Mollie Mavendorf in SL
@digiarchivist
650.721.2752
srojo@stanford.edu