licensing and lawyers

[Pam Matthews <pmatthew@gettysburg.edu> (by way of Pam Matthews <pmatthew@gettysburg.edu>)]

Hi, everyone.

I attended the ARL licensing seminar last May.  The presenters (all of
whom are VERY good) put the fear of God into me about signing off on
licenses that leave the college vulnerable to breach-of-contract lawsuits
and/or don't give the college its full rights under Fair Use guidelines.

The presenters impressed upon us that the best way to make sure that a
license is watertight is to have a lawyer and a librarian BOTH review it.
Therefore, I've been working to get a system in place to do just that.

However, our Finance and Administration officers are now noticing that
lawyers' time doesn't come cheap and are thinking about not having any
agreements reviewed by counsel.  They don't seem to think they'll get sued
-- after all, no one has yet, right?

So, I have a two fold question:

1) How does your institution handle the negotiation and review of license
agreements?

2) Do you know of any lawsuits or other problems arising from breaches?

Thanks VERY much for your help on this!

Pam

____________________________
Pam Matthews
Acquisitions/Serials Librarian
Musselman Library
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg, PA  17325
717-337-7007 (phone) ** 717-337-6666 (fax)
pmatthew@gettysburg.edu