Ivar makes some good points here but I’m opting to reply more fully on my blog as this looks like a potentially dangerous topic for the list!

 

Kind regards

 

Mick

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Librarians,

An interesting issue! In P.V. Supa we have previously discussed the issue and from our point of view it is legal to read the data model provided by other suppliers, as it cannot be infringing any copyrights when just reading it.

 

P.V. Supa is able to read any data model on the market and we have previously been in situations where the original supplier refused to co-operate, but in the end the library got the solution they wanted and several years later the old supplier was kicked out (now they have left the market totally).

 

Many libraries risk ending in a situation as described by Mr. Fortune, as they went for suppliers, who think more about their short-term profit than the long-term benefit of the library (and consequently the supplier). The only way to get out of it is,

 

• to demand open standards,
• to demand that information (i.e. data model or SIP-information) are available to 3^rd party suppliers providing complementary solutions
• to openly tell all other libraries about their unfortunate experience with such suppliers and,
• to blacklist suppliers having this kind behavior.

 

It is very important that uncooperative suppliers are weeded as we, suppliers, are paid by tax-payers money and this kind of money shall be used with highest respect by all citizens.

 

Best regards

P.V. Supa Oy Ltd.

 

Ivar Thyssen

Export manager

 

 

Dear subscribers

 

Very disappointed to receive an email from a long-standing university user of RFID this morning. They were hoping to buy a sorter from a different company to that which had supplied their self-service solution. They have now been told that permission to read existing RFID tags has been denied by the incumbent supplier.

 

We all know that each company currently uses its own data model – making it difficult to pick and choose RFID equipment from different suppliers – but until now there was at least  the possibility of having one supplier write software to read another’s tags. Or alternatively to re-program  existing tags.

 

In the long run of course this approach will become unwieldy with constant re-writes or re-programming operations. That’s what makes the adoption of a common standard and a common profile so important. Today’s news suggests that at least one (major) supplier may have decided to hold on to their market by effectively making it illegal to read their tag data model. What this means in the long term is difficult to assess.

 

Has any other organisation suffered from this problem I wonder?

 

Mick

 

Mick Fortune      

m. +44 (0)7786 625544         t.   +44 (0)1865 727411

 

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