Re: Negotiate or sign? (Was: "Confused")

[Rick Anderson <Rick_Anderson@uncg.edu>]

Excellent post, Carolyn.  One quibble and a note:

> Contracts are written to protect the 
> interest of all parties.  Contracts are only effective if 
> all parties clearly understand up front what their 
> responsibilities are for performance.  

Actually, contracts are written to protect the interests of the party
writing the contract.  The problem libraries face with licenses is that
the contracts are written by the other party.

N.B. -- I hate to sound self-promoting (again), but I've written an
article arguing, as Carolyn does, that publishers may not need to impose
license agreements on the sale of their products as routinely as they do,
and proposing a simple model for determining when they may or may not be
necessary.  It's called "To License or Not to License: That Really Ought
to Be the Question," and it's in the April 1999 issue of Against the
Grain.  If anyone would be interested in a copy, let me know and I'll fax
it to you.

--------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
(336) 334-5281
rick_anderson@uncg.edu

"If you enjoy, you understand;
if you understand, you enjoy... 
To like a football game is to 
understand it in the football way."
       -- Gertrude Stein