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

[Rick Anderson <Rick_Anderson@uncg.edu>]

John says, in regard to license terms:

> 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."

I thought someone might say this, and I'm glad it was John.  And he's got
a good point: if publishers want indemnification, it may be smart for them
to put it in the license and count on inertia to keep it there -- not all
(if CRO is typical, not even most) librarians will object.  But I suspect
that as more librarians get hip to their legal responsibilities and learn
how to negotiate, the cost to publishers (in either negotiating time or
lost sales) of putting such generally unacceptable terms in will rise, and
may eventually outstrip the benefit of putting them in.  We shall see.

--------
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