Hello Marion,

I'm curious about the security and sign-in set up on your computers.  How long does the session have to go on before you get blocked?  Is it just an open session (regardless of activity) or is it open-and-idle?

We haven't had a problem with excessive session duration blocks here, and I'm guessing that it's because our computer configuration is set up to discourage/prevent the behavior you describe, though our worry is more to do with students walking away and leaving their campus portal, Facebook account, Gmail, etc. logged in--preventing excessive session times is a useful side effect.  Our computer labs and workstations are set up so that students must log in to use them; after 5 minutes of idle time, the screens automatically lock, and the user must log in again to continue; after several minutes in the locked state, the machines automatically restart and the entire session is wiped, effectively closing all browser sessions.  The small number of public-access computers in the building are set to automatically restart in 2 hours, or after a designated amount of idle time, accomplishing the same thing.

While I often get annoyed with the restrictive behavior on some platforms, if they're blocking because of long idle times, this is probably reasonable.  Open, unattended sessions aren't a great idea.  As far as license compliance, there is generally a clause where the licensee agrees to ensure to the best of its ability to "protect the Licensed Materials from unauthorized use," and I think leaving an open session that can run unattended for an unlimited time would probably fall under this clause.

If you can work with your campus IT department to set up better security on your open computers, that would probably be the best solution for you.  If that isn't possible, your next best solution is probably a massive education campaign to remind users of all the important reasons why they should always close all programs before leaving the computer.

Regards,
Nikki

--
Nikki DeMoville
Coordinator - Electronic Resources, Acquisitions, and Resource Sharing
Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California

Direct 805-756-5780
Fax 805-756-7711
ndemovil@calpoly.edu



On 2/13/2017 10:54 PM, Marion Prudlo wrote:
Dear colleagues
I’d be interested to find out how you are dealing with the problem of excessive session duration blocks that we have been experiencing since the beginning of the year with Mary Ann Liebert, Taylor and Francis, CRCNetBase, World Scientific and Scitation/AIP Publishing.
According to the publishers this is a new security measure against piracy. If a user walks away from the computer without closing the browser window, the IP adress gets blocked. Obviously, on a university campus this happens all the time. We then have to get in touch with the provider in order to get unblocked. We have been dealing with this issue on an almost daily basis and are swamped with complaints.
 
It seems to me that the thinking is somewhat flawed here. If our patrons are constantly prevented from accessing material and they find out that access via other means is seamless, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out where they will go in the future.
 
How are you dealing with is problem?
Do you feel that this security measure is in compliance with the licenses we have?
 
Any feedback Is greatly appreciated.
Marion
 
 
______________________________________
University Bern
Servicecenter E-Library
 
Marion Prudlo
Head
 
Hochschulstrasse 6
3012 Bern
Switzerland
Tel. +41 31 631 95 94
marion.prudlo@ub.unibe.ch
www.unibe.ch
 
 
 

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