Christine
I'd be very interested in this as, I should imagine, will everyone else
who has been to the Copyright Workshops. The question on electronic
signatures has not yet been tested in court. However, as each person is
supposed to have their own private username & password/User no &
PIN/Athens authentication, I find it hard to believe that the courts
would accept that a system that is secure enough to be used on Bank
Accounts (user id + PIN) is not secure enough to be used for requesting
a journal article.
As people have to agree to Terms & Conditions, including not sharing
their log on details with anyone else, this is as secure as it can get.
The onus would have to be on the requester to comply, not on the
receiver of the request to police this.
I think this whole area is still open to debate, but I can't see how a
system accepted worldwide as secure for financial transactions could be
seen as insecure when it comes to copyright.
Public libraries also work on a user id + PIN for remote access to
borrowing records, to place requests etc. If this were considered
insecure, they would be at risk under Data Protection Act etc.
However, I'd really like someone to clear up for me precisely what an
electronic signature is. Also, surely it's easier to fake someone's
written signature than to crack/steal their ID + PIN?
Before I went to the copyright workshops I was fairly confident that I
knew what I was doing. Now, I'm not so sure.
Tricia Rey
Library Services Manager
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
East Grinstead
Tel: 01342 414266
Mailto:[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Christine Reid [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 18 July 2007 15:00
To: Rey Patricia
Subject: Re: electronic signatures
Tricia
I recently read a book by Bradford & Brine titled "Interlending and
document supply in Britain today". It says that electronic signatuires
are now legal - and gives details of legislation etc. But it goes on to
say that for an e signature to be valid, the user must be able to
demonstrate that it is authentic and that usernames and passwords are
"very unlikely" to meet this test.
I can give you a bit more detail if necessary.
Christine
Christine Reid, Librarian
[log in to unmask]
(Mon, Wed, Fri)
NHS Staff Library, Cookridge Hospital
Hospital Lane, Leeds LS16 6QB
Phone 0113 3924293
(Tues, Thurs)
NHS Staff Library, Chapel Allerton Hospital
Chapeltown Road, Leeds LS7 4SA
Phone 0113 3924662
>>> Rey Patricia <[log in to unmask]> 17 July 2007 14:01 >>>
At the workshop in Bristol it was suggested that we accept only email
requests that have come either from a secure NHS Trust email address
or
nhs.net email address. There is no need for these requests to arrive
on
an official request form. Under CLA licence, there is no need for the
terms & conditions to be agreed as the CLA licence permits wider
copying
including for business purposes. Obviously, if the article requested
is
not covered by the CLA Licence, terms & conditions tickbox or
equivalent
is necessary, or maybe just a statement agreeing to the terms &
conditions added to the foot of an email.
Surely when you print out the email the sender's email address is at
the
top & that can act as a paper copy of an electronic signature?
Where an article is requested through an electronic medium such as a
Library Management System, presumably the fact that someone has had to
log onto the system with their own id before placing their request &
has
ticked the box would cover the electronic signature issue & a paper
copy
would satisfy legal requirements as the security of the system could
be
demonstrated if required. Presumably (because I've not seen one) a
printout would contain the user ID in some form.
I'm not an expert, but I feel that maybe we sometimes try to go too
far
in policing copyright. The onus is on the requester to obey the law
and,
presumably, if we have provided the copy in good faith we are doing
all
we can. No system is absolutely foolproof.
We currently accept email requests from our users and send them a
paper
statement for signature if the request falls outside CLA licence. Of
course, we have the advantage of being a single site Trust with only a
few offsite members. I hope we will soon be able to produce a template
that people can complete & send from their secure email address so
that
we won't have to send the forms for signature.
Tricia Rey
Library Services Manager
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
East Grinstead
Tel: 01342 414266
Mailto:[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Farquharson Helen
Sent: 17 July 2007 12:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: electronic signatures
Apologies for cross posting
I attended a workshop on copyright for health librarians in Manchester
yesterday. One of the subjects that came up was electronic signatures
and their acceptability for use on requests for interlibrary loans. I
think the consensus was that we could accept an electronic signature
provided the sender had ticked a box agreeing to terms and conditions
including an agreement to abide by copyright legislation and had
accessed the request form using ID and password. However there was a
school of thought that there would be difficulties when storing the
requests for the six or so years required by the legislation. It was
thought that once these requests were printed off the "signature"
would
no longer be valid as it would no longer be an electronic document and
no-one seemed to be aware of a reliable method of storing them
electronically.
Can anyone out there shed any light on this? Are there any other
consequences of using electronic signatures in the library world?
Helen Farquharson
Outreach Librarian
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
Good Hope Hospital
Sutton Coldfield
B75 7RR
Tel 0121-378-6206 ext 3549
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