Information retrieval is currently one of the most important usages of the Internet. Scientific publishers are one of the sources of information, providing access to digital libraries on a subscription basis. Contracts between publishers and large

Brazier, F.M.T.

Cevini C.

Groot, D.R.A.

Oskamp, A.

Wijngaards, N.J.E.

de Groot, D.R.A.

Oskamp, A.J.

VU Research Portal

English

Agent-Based Information Retrieval: Legal and Technical Considerations in a Simple Case

VU Research PortalAgent-Based Information Retrieval: Legal and Technical Considerations in a SimpleCaseBrazier, F.M.T.; de Groot, D.R.A.; Oskamp, A.J.; Wijngaards, N.J.E.published inProceedings of the Sixteenth Belgium-Netherlands Artificial Intelligence Conference (BNAIC'04), Oktober 21-22,Groningen, The Netherlands)2004document versionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publication in VU Research Portalcitation for published version (APA)Brazier, F. M. T., de Groot, D. R. A., Oskamp, A. J., & Wijngaards, N. J. E. (2004). Agent-Based InformationRetrieval: Legal and Technical Considerations in a Simple Case. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Belgium-Netherlands Artificial Intelligence Conference (BNAIC'04), Oktober 21-22, Groningen, The Netherlands) (pp.339-340)General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.            • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.            • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain            • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediatelyand investigate your claim.E-mail address:vuresearchportal.ub@vu.nlDownload date: 27. May. 2021Agent-Based Information Retrieval: Legal and Technical Considerations in a Simple Case Frances M.T. Braziera     David R.A. de Groota     Anja Oskampb     Niek J.E. Wijngaardsa  a Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Faculty of Sciences, IIDS Group, {frances, davidra, niek}@cs.vu.nl b Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Faculty of Law, Computer/Law Institute, a.oskamp@rechten.vu.nl  The full version of this paper appeared in: Claudia Cevenini (editor), The Law and Electronic Agents: Proceedings of the LEA 04 workshop, pp. 95-107.   More and more people regard the Internet as an important source of information for work and private activities. For example, many scientists use web-pages, newsgroups and e-mail to remain well-informed about their research areas. Important activities include searching for new publications, monitoring research progress and keeping track of citations to their own publications. Publishers, such as IEEE, ACM, Elsevier, Kluwer, MIT Press, and Springer, recognize these needs and provide online digital libraries. Other organizations, e.g. DBLP, CiteSeer and Ingenta, offer additional services, such as maintaining indices on a per-author basis. Some of these organizations offer public access to digital versions of publications, while others provide such access on a subscription basis. Subscribers can be organizations themselves, such as universities and research institutions. Usually, a subscription applies to an entire organization; for example for a university, it includes access for employees, students and guests. The access policy, however, is ’campus-based’: off-campus access is limited. The paper explores the current usage of the Elsevier ScienceDirect1 digital library in the context of the contract of the Vrije Univesiteit Amsterdam (VUA) with Elsevier and analyses possibilities and consequences for on- and off-campus access involving software agents.  Agent technology is a promising and enabling technology [1], not only useful for e-commerce applications, but also for information retrieval applications. Software agents offer business and scientific opportunities for all involved parties. ScienceDirect may make its products more attractive by providing new                                                  1 ScienceDirect® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. facilities for (remote) automated access. The VUA may benefit from gaining more control on the use of ScienceDirect, e.g. by enforcing access policies and volume-restrictions on agent-based access. In addition, VUA may offer different services than other universities, for example, employees could train their own agents with a set of publications to find similar publications by searching through publications in ScienceDirect’s database. VUA employees and students may benefit by acquiring 24/7 access to ScienceDirect together with possibilities to better search for relevant publications and be better informed about new developments. A leading question in our research was whether agents are allowed to access the ScienceDirect website, according to the VUA contract. If not, then our agent-based scenarios would be in violation of the contract. Surprisingly, the contract allows access from alternative platforms and even expresses the willingness of ScienceDirect to cooperate and assist in the development. Thus, it can be concluded that the legality of using software agents in this context is no longer questionable.  Acknowledgements This multi-disciplinary research is supported by Stichting NLnet (http://www.nlnet.nl) and conducted within the ALIAS project [2], in which legal implications of the use of agent systems from both a legal and technological perspective are investigated.  References [1] Luck, M., McBurney, P. and Preist, C., “Agent Technology: Enabling Next Generation Computing”. AgentLink (2003), ISBN 0854 327886, available from http://www.agentlink.org/roadmap/. [2] Brazier, F.M.T., Oskamp, A., Prins, J.E.J., Schellekens, M.H.M., Schreuders, E., Wijngaards, N.J.E., Apistola, M., Voulon, M.B. and Kubbe, O., “ALIAS: Analysing Legal Implications and Agent Information Systems”, Technical Report no. IR-CS-004, Computer Science, Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2003), available from http://www.iids.org/alias. 

Groot, D.R.A. de

DSpace at VU

Agent-Based Information Retrieval: 
Legal and Technical Considerations in a Simple Case 
Frances M.T. Braziera     David R.A. de Groota     Anja Oskampb     
Niek J.E. Wijngaardsa  
a
 Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Faculty of Sciences, IIDS Group, 
{frances, davidra, niek}@cs.vu.nl 
b
 Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Faculty of Law, Computer/Law 
Institute, a.oskamp@rechten.vu.nl 
 
The full version of this paper appeared in: Claudia Cevenini (editor), The Law and 
Electronic Agents: Proceedings of the LEA 04 workshop, pp. 95-107.  
 
More and more people regard the Internet as an important source of information 
for work and private activities. For example, many scientists use web-pages, 
newsgroups and e-mail to remain well-informed about their research areas. 
Important activities include searching for new publications, monitoring research 
progress and keeping track of citations to their own publications. Publishers, 
such as IEEE, ACM, Elsevier, Kluwer, MIT Press, and Springer, recognize 
these needs and provide online digital libraries. Other organizations, e.g. DBLP, 
CiteSeer and Ingenta, offer additional services, such as maintaining indices on a 
per-author basis. Some of these organizations offer public access to digital 
versions of publications, while others provide such access on a subscription 
basis. Subscribers can be organizations themselves, such as universities and 
research institutions. Usually, a subscription applies to an entire organization; 
for example for a university, it includes access for employees, students and 
guests. The access policy, however, is ’campus-based’: off-campus access is 
limited. 
The paper explores the current usage of the Elsevier ScienceDirect1 digital 
library in the context of the contract of the Vrije Univesiteit Amsterdam (VUA) 
with Elsevier and analyses possibilities and consequences for on- and off-
campus access involving software agents.  
Agent technology is a promising and enabling technology [1], not only useful 
for e-commerce applications, but also for information retrieval applications. 
Software agents offer business and scientific opportunities for all involved 
parties. ScienceDirect may make its products more attractive by providing new 
                                                 
1
 ScienceDirect® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. 
facilities for (remote) automated access. The VUA may benefit from gaining 
more control on the use of ScienceDirect, e.g. by enforcing access policies and 
volume-restrictions on agent-based access. In addition, VUA may offer different 
services than other universities, for example, employees could train their own 
agents with a set of publications to find similar publications by searching 
through publications in ScienceDirect’s database. VUA employees and students 
may benefit by acquiring 24/7 access to ScienceDirect together with possibilities 
to better search for relevant publications and be better informed about new 
developments. 
A leading question in our research was whether agents are allowed to access 
the ScienceDirect website, according to the VUA contract. If not, then our 
agent-based scenarios would be in violation of the contract. Surprisingly, the 
contract allows access from alternative platforms and even expresses the 
willingness of ScienceDirect to cooperate and assist in the development. Thus, it 
can be concluded that the legality of using software agents in this context is no 
longer questionable.  
Acknowledgements 
This multi-disciplinary research is supported by Stichting NLnet 
(http://www.nlnet.nl) and conducted within the ALIAS project [2], in which 
legal implications of the use of agent systems from both a legal and 
technological perspective are investigated. 
 
References 
[1] Luck, M., McBurney, P. and Preist, C., “Agent Technology: Enabling Next 
Generation Computing”. AgentLink (2003), ISBN 0854 327886, available 
from http://www.agentlink.org/roadmap/. 
[2] Brazier, F.M.T., Oskamp, A., Prins, J.E.J., Schellekens, M.H.M., 
Schreuders, E., Wijngaards, N.J.E., Apistola, M., Voulon, M.B. and Kubbe, 
O., “ALIAS: Analysing Legal Implications and Agent Information 
Systems”, Technical Report no. IR-CS-004, Computer Science, Faculty of 
Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2003), available from 
http://www.iids.org/alias. 


Brazier, F.M.

Cevenini, C.

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Agent-based Information retrieval: Legal and Technical Considerations in a Simple Case

Agent-Based Information Retrieval: Legal and Technical Considerations in a Simple Case

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