Research use under the new Education Licensing Program, more permissive?

Question

David, Angie

Thanks for a great hosted presentation today (2016-07-21), couldn't attend but the recorded session was well captured.

As I listened to the details of the new Education licensing program the expanded availability of Portal is very welcome news, key to making that appealing is going to be SSO (for us either AD or Shibboleth), I've been avoiding it as with 28,000 enrolled students, faculty and staff but only 2000 named users and 1000 ArcGIS Pro seats--moving users into and out of our single AGOL portal was daunting.  Hearing the reaffirmed commitment to "functionally unlimited" use of the entire Esri product line is heartening.

So as a practical matter adding additional AGOL portal instances "functionally unlimited", i.e. each Department, Lab or research  group can roll their own is going to move this along nicely.  That coupled with adding "functionally unlimited" ArcGIS Server Portals beyond the current 50 seat demonstration allowance should allow folks to start to make more use of ArcGIS Maps for Office--and ArcGIS Pro (if we can get faculty and staff trained up in its use). Their research "data" may reside on ArcGIS Server Portal instances, or pull from AGOL or from premium services BAO, CAO,  Comunity Planning--so the "functionally unlimited" credit allocation may well be put to the test.

This is sooo cool!

But here is a rub I hope you can clarify early.  We are still operating under your missive from September 2013:

Rubric for determining permitted uses under Educational Site License Program.  I don't think there is any question about our Teaching/Instruction and Personal Research.  But the lines blur as we move into areas of Sponsored Research, Contracted Research and even formal consulting service provided by faculty.  The litmus test now has essentially been -- "is there a contracted deliverable?", if so it is not permitted research under the current Educational Site Licese/Lab License--and the sponsor or grant source, or individual faculty must procure non-profit or commercial license to perform that research.  To what extent will that be relaxed under the new Education Licensing Program?

Stuart

V_StuartFoote · Answer

-- IANAL --

Unfortunately, yes.  Under the 2013 guidance we should obtain a non-profit or commercial seat of ArcGIS (not a part of our Site license) for "Sponsored" research activities that require "deliverables" as a part of the grant funding terms or contract--i.e. a "contract deliverable". And of course little question regards professional consulting use requiring appropriate license.  The fuzzy area is the cross over between "Personal" academic research and "Sponsored" grant funded research by faculty and students in an academic setting. That is our problem area.

Practically, I've had to advise individual researchers and research offices  to procure their own seats of ArcGIS for their consulting, and  their own AGOL instance and credits. That, coupled with some of the Administrative use restrictions forces us (primary contacts and License coordinators) to play referee about who can use what.  I am hoping for more clarity and some adjustment in the fuzzy area under the new Education Licensing Program.

Guidance from David and team to the License Administrators group  SiteLicensePermittedUses.pdf  was linked for the Esri Education Site License Coordinators group with this note:

This document helps to clarify the permitted uses of site license software, especially in the area of research. Frequently asked questions regarding permitted uses of Esri software are answered by the Esri Education Team.

otherwise it is available as Esri DOC-3046  https://community.esri.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/3046-102-1-4136/SiteLicensePermittedUses.pdf

Stuart

--IANAL--

Updated (Oct 2016) version:

Esri DOC-6905  Esri Education Site License Permitted Uses Rubric - October 2016.pdf , or directly at:

https://community.esri.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/6905-102-2-11011/Esri%20Education%20Site%20License%20Permitted%20Uses%20Rubric%20-%20October%202016.pdf

DanPatterson_Retired · Answer

For the lawyers

If we are required, as part of our research, to deliver maps or tools or any derivative from using esri products, to a funding body.. is that in violation of terms of the educational license?  The subtle difference between educational research deliverables and private sector contract deliverables, is often fuzzy.  The educational purpose is not profit driven, but cost recovery and student support.

DavidDiBiase · Answer

Stuart, we plan to incorporate language from the "permitted uses" rubric you cited, but we hadn't planned to alter that language. Prior to your message here, we weren't aware that there was any problem with our guidelines. I invite you to suggest an edit that we can run by Esri's corporate attorney.