RE: Developing impossible situation, Re: Authority to sign licenses

[Terry Cullen <tcullen@seattleu.edu>]

You are correct.  The issue, then, is how to find out that a publisher has
offered more favorable terms in a subsequent license, so that you can take
advantage of those terms.  There's not much chance the publisher is going
to let you know if they are giving new subscribers better terms than you
got when you entered your subscription agreement.  One solution might be
to adopt a policy of selective review/renegotiation.  If you're happy with
the terms you got, it's probably not worth the time/cost to review terms
annually, but if you have licenses that contain restrictive terms that are
problematic for you, you might want to invest in attempts to renegotiate
those on an annual basis.

Terry Cullen
Electronic Services Librarian
Seattle University School of Law Library
950 Broadway Plaza, Tacoma, WA  98402-4470
Email:  tcullen@seattleu.edu
Phone:  253-591-7092  FAX:  253-591-6313


On Monday, March 01, 1999 8:07 PM, Rick Anderson 
[SMTP:rick_anderson@uncg.edu] wrote:
>
> > I am curious to know whether libraries find publishers notify them of
> > changes in licensing terms since the contract for a particular product 
> > was signed.
>
> It seems to me that once terms are agreed to and signed, that version of
> the terms is the legally binding one.  I wouldn't imagine that either
> party can simply impose new terms unilaterally with any sort of
> enforceable consequence.  How true that is in any given case is limited by
> the language in the termination clause, I guess -- if the license expires
> a year after signing, then I suppose you have to negotiate again at that
> point.  But I can't imagine that the vendor has any legal right to simply
> change the terms unilaterally, any more than the customer does.  Am I
> mistaken about this?
>
> ----------------------
> Rick Anderson
> Head Acquisitions Librarian
> Jackson Library
> UNC Greensboro
> 1000 Spring Garden St.
> Greensboro, NC 27402-6175
> PH (336) 334-5281
> FX (336) 334-5399
> rick_anderson@uncg.edu
> http://www.uncg.edu/~r_anders