RE: Negotiations Stall in Tasini v New York Times (fwd)

[Carole Richter <Carole.J.Richter.8@nd.edu>]

The only problem with this strategy is the vendor costs haven't decreased
at all (in fact they will doubtless increase simply in response to
figuring out what they do/don't have rights to, let alone potentially
having to defend legal challenges to what they've published). Because they
are in a competitive situation with one another, it's hard for me to
believe there is a *lot* of excess money to be had. And development costs
for the many enhancements we all clamor for are real.

Maybe I'm naive, but I can't help but think the Jonathan Tasini statement
expecting publishers to jump to their table is also naive. The models for
handling payment for freelance writers' articles may 'work' in a situation
where users choose to pay directly, or their affiliated institutions pay
for them (eg. document delivery funded by the library). It seems much more
problematic for an aggregator publisher to be in a position of paying 'by
the drink' for tens of thousands of articles that have potentially
unlimited uses (+ administrative costs for tracking and paying). Possibly
I'm just catastrophizing, but I could imagine that this would be a
lose/lose situation for aggregators in particular. I hope I'm missing the
obvious, more benign true picture here. Personally I have no desire to see
our aggregator publishers decide their products have too much potential
for economic loss to continue making them available. I'd equally hate to
see the wave wash out the alternatives, with only one or two surviving. I
think librarians have an interest in seeing the aggregators hang onto
their hats (and whatever content they can). I doubt that asking for money
back will help that happen.


 At 06:28 PM 6/27/2001 EDT, you wrote:
>If vendors remove these articles from the databases we subscribe to, can
>we not take this opportunity to demand a price decrease(!) because content
>has been decreased?  hmmm.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kerry A Keck [mailto:keckker@rice.edu]
>Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 8:33 PM
>To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>Subject: FW: Negotiations Stall in Tasini v New York Times (fwd)
>
>
>I've followed the events since the Tasinia announcement with great
>interest, and felt this group might find the following statement a source
>of useful perspective.
>______________________________________________
>Kerry Keck - Asst. University Librarian, Collections
>Fondren Library - MS44           Phone:  713-348-2926
>Rice University                  Fax:    713-348-5258
>6100 S. Main                     Email:  keckker@rice.edu
>Houston, TX  77005-1892          http://sparta.rice.edu/~keckker