Restricting launches to IP-restricted licensed web services

[Gayane K Merguerian]

I currently maintain our library's web gateway which provides access to
numerous licensed services that are IP-address restricted.  We are an
academic library, and in all cases so far, we have purchased campus-wide
access and provided a link directly from one of our pages to the licensed
service.  However, a debate has arisen within our library as to whether we
should be restricting access to these services on our end, or whether IP
address restriction is the publisher's responsibility alone. 

That is, do we have to restrict access to the page (or create a script) ON
OUR SERVER that launches the licensed service?  Currently we do not--for
example, any user, whether affiliated with our institution or not, can get
into JSTOR or Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe through a link on our web
site, as long as their IP address is recognized by JSTOR and Lexis-Nexis
as that of a subscribing institution somewhere. 

I realize that some libraries do restrict the ability to launch licensed
services from their web sites to their own institutional users, and I'm
sure there are advantages for statistics gathering, providing links to
proxy servers and so forth. But my question is, are we required to do it
as a matter of course?

My position has been--other libraries provide direct, unrestricted links
to licensed services, so it must be OK for us to do it too.  In fact, it
seems like a violation of the spirit of IP address-restricting for a
publisher to assume the library will also restrict the access to a single
specific library web page that launches the service.  But I feel I need
more muscle behind my argument than that.  Can anyone help? 

G. Karen Merguerian
Bibliographic Services
Northeastern University Libraries
Boston, MA 02115
gmerguer at lynx.neu.edu