Warranties and Indemnities ...

In this post I compare the digital conservancy/repository terms of service for two universities: Minnesota and Sydney. The University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy I have used for a few years. It is well run and the staff are helpful.

The University of Minnesota:

There is one last step: In order for The UDC to reproduce, translate and distribute your submission worldwide, you must agree to the following terms. If you have questions regarding this agreement, please contact the Digital Conservancy staff: udc@umn.edu

By depositing this Content (“Content”) in the University Digital Conservancy (“Digital Conservancy”), I agree that I am solely responsible for any consequences of uploading this Content to the Digital Conservancy and making it publicly available, and I represent and warrant that:

I am either the sole creator and the owner of the copyrights and all other rights in the Content; or, without obtaining another’s permission, I have the right to deposit the Content in an archive such as the Digital Conservancy.

To the extent that any portions of the Content are not my own creation, they are used with the copyright holder’s express permission or as permitted by law. Additionally, the Content does not infringe the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of another, nor does the Content violate any laws or another’s rights of privacy or publicity.

The Content contains no restricted, private, confidential, or otherwise protected data or information that should not be publicly shared.

I understand that the Digital Conservancy will do its best to provide perpetual access to my Content. In order to support these efforts, I grant the Regents of the University of Minnesota ("University"), through its Digital Conservancy, the following non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, world-wide rights and licenses:

to access, reproduce, distribute and publicly display the Content, in whole or in part, in order to secure, preserve and make it publicly available, and

to make derivative works based upon the Content in order to migrate the Content to other media or formats, or to preserve its public access.

These terms do not transfer ownership of the copyright(s) in the Content. These terms only grant to the University the limited license outlined above.

In contrast the University of Sydney eScholarship Repository is far less friendly in terms of licenses.

Sydney eScholarship Distribution License

There is one last step: In order for Sydney eScholarship to reproduce, translate and distribute your submission worldwide, your agreement to the following terms is necessary. Please take a moment to read the terms of this license, and click on one of the buttons at the bottom of the page. By clicking on the "Grant License" button, you indicate that you grant the following terms of the license.

Not granting the license will not delete your submission. Your item will remain in your "My Sydney eScholarship" page. You can then either remove the submission from the system, or agree to the license later once any queries you might have are resolved.

By this License, the Contributor, for the benefit of the University,
grants the University following rights.

1.	Definitions
=====================================================================
Contributor means the author.contributor identified in the Sydney 
eScholarship Repository Metadata.

eScholarship Repository Metadata means the metadata encoded in the 
uploaded Works by the Contributor when accessing the Sydney 
eScholarship Repository.

University means The University of Sydney acting through Sydney 
eScholarship Repository, a body corporate under the University of 
Sydney Act 1989, ABN 15 211 513 464, of University of Sydney Library 
F03 University of Sydney, NSW 2006  Sydney  NSW  2006.

Work means the works listed [as Titles in the Sydney 
eScholarship Repository Metadata/in the Schedule to this License].

2.	Licence
=====================================================================
The Contributor grants the University the non-exclusive perpetual 
license to reproduce and communicate the Work to the public via the 
Sydney eScholarship Repository and, without changing the content, to 
translate the Work to any medium or format for the purposes of 
preservation, research and study provided such use is not for a 
commercial purpose,  The Contributor also agrees that the University 
may keep more than one copy of the Work for the purposes of security, 
backup and preservation.

3.	Attribution
=====================================================================
The eScholarship Repository will clearly identify the Contributor as 
the author of the Work.

4.	Acknowledgements
=====================================================================
The Contributor acknowledges that:
(a)	they will not receive any payment from the University for the
 grant of rights under this License;
(b)	the Work is subject to the approval of the University and may
 not be accepted to the eScholarship Repository;
(c)	the University may remove the Work from the eScholarship 
Repository at any time at its absolute discretion; and
(d)	they have no termination rights under this License.

5.	Standard of work
=====================================================================
In order for Work to be accepted to and remain on the eScholarship 
Repository, the Contributor acknowledges that:
(a)	the Work is academic and postgraduate (unless Work is an 
Honours Thesis or is otherwise approved by the University in writing)
; and
(b)	text material submitted is final draft or published version, 
and non-text material submitted is in its final form.

6.	Warranties
=====================================================================
The Contributor warrants that:
(a)	the Work is their original work;
(b)	they have obtained consents in writing from all previous
publishers of the Work to enter into this License;
(c)	they have obtained consents in writing from third parties
which have any materials reproduced in the Work to publish the Work;
(d)	they can grant the rights under this License and the
University's exercise of those rights will not infringe the
copyright or other intellectual property rights of third parties;
(e)	to the best of their knowledge, the Work is accurate as at
the date in which the final version of the Work is submitted to the
University and as far as reasonably possible they have sought to
verify all statements in the Work which purport to be true and
accurate;
(f)	to the best of their knowledge, the Work does not contain any
 scandalous, defamatory, or obscene material or any material which is
  actionable for interference with privacy, infringement of copyright,
  breach of confidence, passing off or contravention of any other
  private right; and
(g)	they have not engaged in any practices in preparing the Work
that would amount to plagiarism or any other form of academic
dishonesty or research misconduct under University policies and rules
 or which would (or would be likely to) bring the Contributor or the
 University into disrepute, and that they have complied with the
 University's policies, procedures and rules.
(h)	where the work is a thesis, it is a direct equivalent of the
final officially approved version that was submitted, and no
emendation of content has occurred other than minor variations in
formatting, that are the result of the conversion to digital format.

7.	Breach of warranty
=====================================================================
The Contributor agrees to:
(a)	notify the University as soon as they become aware of any 
circumstances relating to the breach or potential breach of a 
warranty in clause 6;
(b)	allow the eScholarship Repository Coordinator to take any 
action to manage the University's exposure to such liability;
(c)	provide the University with all reasonable assistance in 
relation to the conduct or defence of any legal proceedings which may
 be commenced by or against the University in relation to the breach 
 of a warranty in clause 6; and
(d)	indemnify the University against any actions, costs or 
expenses arising out of the breach of a warranty in clause 6.

8.	Jurisdiction
=====================================================================
The Contributor agrees that this License is governed by the law of 
New South Wales, submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the 
courts in New South Wales and waives any right they have to object to
 an action being brought in those courts (including by claiming that 
 the action has been brought in an inconvenient forum or that those 
 courts do not have jurisdiction).

Note especially Clause 7.

"(d) indemnify the University against any actions, costs or expenses arising out of the breach of a warranty in clause 6."

Why exactly would I agree to this? I assume it only applies if they lose (i.e. if a court rules a warranty has been breached), but even so, who really knows. As a general rule a university should be indemnifying its academic staff, not vice versa.

The University of Sydney libraries seem to have a much smaller repository.