Licence and Use Agreement for beck-eLibrary.DIE FACHBIBLIOTHEK

The following licence and use agreement regulates the mutual rights and obligations of the customers and users of beck-eLibrary.DIE FACHBIBLIOTHEK (hereinafter: "beck-eLibrary") and VERLAG C.H.BECK (hereinafter: "Publisher"). The Publisher grants the customer or user the non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use the licensed contents of the beck-eLibrary in accordance with the following rules.

1. Limited rights of use for everyone

1.1 User Interface

Access to the research interface of the beck-eLibrary is free. Visitors to the beck-eLibrary have the right to:

  • conduct research on the platform using the functions offered there;
  • read and print freely available content;
  • register personally - and then to send information about platform content via the web e-mail function offered.

The web e-mail function may not be used for sending mass e-mails. It may also not be used for sending e-mails that do not relate to Platform content.

1.2 Open Access publications

Some contributions on the beck-eLibrary are accessible to everyone in full text as "open access publications". Where contributions are marked as open access publications, they are not subject to the licence conditions set out in the following paragraphs, but exclusively to the Creative Commons licence named in each case. Currently, the Creative Commons licence BY-NC-ND 3.0 applies, i.e. content marked in this way may be downloaded, saved, printed and distributed.

Please note that any use must comply with the terms of the Creative Commons licence. This means, in particular, that if you use the full text, you must comply with the attribution requirements. In particular, credit must be given to:

  • the author or authors;
  • the place of publication - i.e. the book or journal title and the date of publication;
  • the "DOI link" through which the article can be permanently accessed on the internet. (The DOI link is a permanently valid web link; it is specified for each article and has, for example, the form https://doi.org/10.15358/9783800651726).

An OA article may not be printed or republished for commercial purposes without the publisher's consent. The text of the contribution may not be altered in any way.

2. Scope of chargeable use for individual and institutional clients

The Publisher offers individual and institutional customers various contents, e.g. journal contents as well as eBooks, for permanent use (so-called "purchase model") via the beck-eLibrary.

Individual customers within the meaning of this contract are natural persons.

Institutional Customers within the meaning of this Agreement are public, non-commercial libraries, universities, non-commercial research institutions, government institutions as well as companies (including law firms).

Individual and Institutional Customers who license Content for perpetual use have the right to use the full texts of the licensed Content of beck-eLibrary in the following manner:

2.1 Rights of individual customers

Individual customers are entitled to read the purchased content for their own personal purposes

  • to read on screen
  • to download individual articles into the computer's memory;
  • to save individual articles - to an extent corresponding to the individual's own academic activity;
  • to print individual articles - to an extent corresponding to the individual's own academic activity.

The rights of use relate solely to the individual client as a single person; they are not transferable.

2.2 Rights of institutional customers

Institutional Customers are entitled to grant their respective users access to the licensed contents of the beck-eLibrary in accordance with these Terms of Use. The group of authorised users of institutional customers includes exclusively:

  • Members and affiliates of the acquiring institution, university or library;
  • Visitors to the library premises during their stay in the library ("walk-in users").

Former members and relatives (alumni) do not count as eligible users of an institution. If this group of users is to be activated as an exception, an individual agreement can be made with the publisher. Please contact the publisher directly.

The right to use the licensed contents of the beck-eLibrary by authorised users for the purposes of academic research includes the following:

  • to retrieve and read content on screen;
  • to download individual chapters and articles into the working memory of the computer;
  • to save individual chapters and articles - to an extent that corresponds to the individual user's own scholarly activity
  • to print individual chapters and articles - to an extent corresponding to the individual own academic activity of the respective user;
  • to make individual chapters and articles publicly accessible for teaching and research purposes to other authorised users of the same institutional customer within the meaning of Section 60a (1) UrhG ("electronic term paper");
  • to reproduce individual chapters and articles at public reading places within the meaning of Section 60e(4) UrhG. Systematic downloading or printing of entire works, even if spread over several sessions, is not permitted (agreement within the meaning of Section 60g (2) UrhG).

In the case of subscriptions of institutional customers, the simultaneous use of the licensed content by different authorised users of an institution is permitted without limitation in number.

2.3. Prohibited Uses

Any use of the Licensed Content beyond the uses permitted in Clauses 2.1 and 2.2 is prohibited. In particular, individual and institutional customers as well as their authorised users are not permitted,

  • grant third parties access to the licensed contents of the beck-eLibrary; or
  • distribute licensed content in whole or in part in printed or electronic form - offline or online - to third parties, make it publicly available or make it available in any other way and/or commercialise and/or offer the content commercially; or
  • edit or modify the Licensed Content, including but not limited to removing, modifying or suppressing author and publisher names, copyright notices, logos, trademarks and other identifying features, disclaimers or reservations of rights contained in any Content
  • repeatedly and systematically download substantial parts of the beck-eLibrary, in particular if this is done for the purpose of creating an archive of the Platform Content through which the Licensed Content can be accessed outside the beck-eLibrary.

Uses that are permitted according to mandatory limitation regulations of copyright law remain unaffected. For the avoidance of doubt, for Open Access publications, which are explained in more detail in section 1.2 of these Terms of Use, the licence conditions of the respective Open Access licence apply exclusively.

2.4 Administration rights of institutional clients

Institutional clients appoint one or more administrators who are granted extended rights. Administrators can retrieve usage statistics and catalogue data free of charge as well as make some settings that modify the presentation of the Platform in their institution. The Publisher may change the scope of the administration rights at any time at its own discretion, but in the case of limiting the administration rights only after giving Institutional Clients the opportunity to comment within a useful period of time. Institutional customers may import all catalogue data made available via the Platform into their own catalogues as well as into catalogues of affiliated institutions (e.g. library networks).

3. Use for text and data mining / artificial intelligence systems

3.1 The publisher expressly reserves the right to reproduce the contents for the purposes of text-and-data mining within the meaning of Section 44b (1) UrhG (reservation pursuant to Section 44b (3) UrhG).

3.2 The statutory limitation provision of Section 60d UrhG (text and data mining for the purposes of scientific research), which permits reproduction for text and data mining for the purposes of scientific research within narrow limits, remains unaffected by section 3.1. Reproductions stored for this purpose must be secured with appropriate security measures against unauthorised use and must be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for the purposes of scientific research or the verification of scientific findings.

3.3 Individual and institutional customers as well as their authorised users are furthermore expressly not permitted to use the contents for the purpose of development, training or in any other connection with the construction of their own artificial intelligence system or in connection with the use of an artificial intelligence system of a third party (including systems of generative artificial intelligence, such as Chat GPT), insofar as this use goes beyond a legally permitted use pursuant to Section 60d UrhG.

4. Authentication

Individual and institutional customers are deposited by the Publisher in a database to automatically gain access to the Platform. Users are authenticated using the following technical methods:

  • Individual customers are authenticated by user name and password.
  • Institutions and the group of users authorised by them are authenticated by stored IP addresses.
  • Institutions may additionally grant their authorised users (with the exception of walk-in users) access to the platform via remote access from outside the IP number range, e.g. via procedures such as VPN dial-in to the institution's network (Virtual Private Network) or via EZproxy.

5. Updating of content

The distribution model (purchase model) includes the assurance of unlimited permanence of the rights of use and online access on the platform of C.H.BECK Verlag. The publisher reserves the right to withdraw individual products or contents at any time, in particular if the publisher no longer holds the necessary rights or if there is reasonable suspicion that individual products or contents infringe the rights of third parties or are otherwise unlawful or if the withdrawal is reasonable at the publisher's discretion due to an impending legal dispute. The publisher likewise reserves the right to subsequently publish titles as open access publications and thus also to subsequently change the individual prices of the products included in the package.

6. Long-term archiving

6.1 Permanent use

The distribution model (purchase model) includes the assurance of unlimited permanence of the rights of use. Access is primarily via the publisher's online platform. Should online access to the platform be discontinued or should the Publisher no longer offer the content on its platform at a later date, the Publisher shall be entitled to provide a digital copy of the data on a digital data carrier as an alternative means of access.

6.2 Dark Archive

Institutional customers may apply to create a so-called "Dark Archive" of the licensed content even during ongoing online operation. This Dark Archive serves as an alternative means of accessing the Licensed Content in the event that the Publisher is permanently unable to make it available via the Publisher's platform. Users are not permitted to access the Dark Archive during the normal operation of the Publisher Platform. A Dark Archive option requires a separate agreement. Please contact the publisher if you are interested.

7. Interlibrary loan

Institutional customers may pass on individual parts of the licensed content, such as a licensed journal article as well as individual small parts (chapters) of licensed monographs from the beck-eLibrary within the framework of a non-commercial inter-library loan. The document passed on must be made available to the receiving library via a system (such as the "Ariel" system) which ensures that the document can only be passed on once in printed form to purchasers and cannot be reused beyond that. Alternatively, a paper copy may be transmitted. In any case, interlibrary loan may only be used for personal use or for scientific, educational or research purposes, but not for commercial purposes or for any other purposes prohibited by this licence and user agreement.

8. Up-to-dateness of access data

The customer is obliged to keep all data required for the performance of the contractual relationship, such as IP address, e-mail address and, if applicable, billing address, up to date, or to inform the publisher of any changes without delay and without being requested to do so. If the customer does not comply with this obligation - in particular with regard to the authentication details - the publisher may block his access to the offer. 9..

9. Securing access data and passwords

The customer shall treat access data and passwords confidentially and take appropriate technical measures to protect the offer from unauthorised access by third parties. In the event of loss of access data or passwords and if misuse of access data is detected, the publisher must be informed immediately. In this case, the Publisher has the right to temporarily block access until new access data have been created.

10. Other obligations of institutional customers

The institutional client must take appropriate organisational and security measures to ensure, as far as possible, that the terms of use are observed by the authorised users. In particular, he shall be obliged to inform his Authorised Users in text form of the Terms of Use set out herein. If the institutional client becomes aware of a breach of the provisions of these terms of use by an authorised user, it must take appropriate measures to remedy the breach and prevent further breaches by the user. In the event of repeated or particularly serious violations, this may also mean blocking the authorised user.

11. Blocking in case of violation of these terms of use

If the customer violates these terms of use repeatedly or in a particularly serious manner, the publisher is entitled to permanently block access to the licensed content and to terminate the licence without notice for exceptional reasons. Further claims of the publisher remain unaffected.

12. Technical requirements

12.1 Bandwidth

The offer is accessed via the Internet. The Publisher uses servers and lines with appropriate capacity and bandwidth for the provision of the offer. The publisher is not responsible for the provision and transmission of data beyond its own technical infrastructure. In particular, the publisher cannot accept any responsibility for the technical equipment of the data line to the customer, technical failures as a result of force majeure or the computer equipment on the customer's side.

Necessary maintenance work will be carried out outside the main usage times if possible. The Publisher does not guarantee uninterrupted availability of access to the beck-eLibrary. If the availability does not fall below 95% on a monthly average, temporary failures or impairments of the availability do not constitute poor performance.

12.2 Software required

The use of the portal and its contents currently requires the use of current browser software and a PDF reader. This software is not part of the licence.

13. Data protection

To enable the contractually agreed service, it is necessary for the publisher to store personal data in machine-readable form to a limited extent. These are:

  • First name,
  • surname,
  • e-mail address,
  • location,
  • username,
  • password and
  • IP address, insofar as authentication takes place via these (cf. section 3).

Insofar as personal data is processed, this shall be done in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. .

14. Applicable law, invalidity of individual provisions

The contractual relationship shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and German international private law.

The place of jurisdiction shall be Munich if the contractual partner is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law or has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany or if the contractual partner has relocated his place of residence or habitual abode outside Germany after conclusion of the contract or if the place of residence or habitual abode of the contractual partner is unknown at the time the action is filed.

The invalidity of individual provisions of these general terms and conditions of contract shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions, unless adherence to the contract constitutes unreasonable hardship for one of the parties.

Status

1.8.2023

Contact for licensing requests

VERLAG C.H.BECK oHG

Wilhelmstraße 9

80801 München

E-mail: service@beck-elibrary.de

Phone: + 49 89 38189 947/140

www.beck.de