"If you're willing to take it out...

[John Abbott <abbottjp@conrad.appstate.edu>]

In response to "...if you're willing to take it out, why put it in?"  As
has been said here before, the vendor attorney's role is to maximize the
vendor's position while minimizing the licensee's.

Like buying a used car, it is a game of caveat stoogetor (stooges beware).
I sold a pickup last year, and the buyer offered me $500 less than I had
asked and I took it; he didn't then say "If you were willing to take that
amount, why didn't you ask for that amount."

As a librarian I/we have entered deeper into the hurley-burley of how
legal processes work and am finding that they are far more in tumult and
are far less rigid than we ever suspected.  A letter that I write to my
aged mother saying I will come visit this summer is a much more immutable
document/contract than any license I have examined.

My latest favorite clause (seen 2x last week) says-- when the product is
used or referenced, the product must receive appropriate attribution in
accordance to then prevailing scholarly standards.  I am to warrant that
every student is doing this? Ha.

Another area where signers maybe straying into the forbidden is agreeing
to binding arbitration or the paying of attorney's fees.  In my state
these provisions must be struck out.


-- 
John P. Abbott
  Coordinator, Collection Development		
  ASU Libraries                           
  Appalachian State University            
  Boone, NC  28608-2026                   

phone:  828-262-2821  
fax:    828-262-3001  
email:  abbottjp@appstate.edu