RE: Peggy Hoon on licenses

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

Although not quite on this topic of publisher/library contracts, 
there is a very useful site maintained by Columbia University Law 
School about publisher/author contracts: 
http://www.keepyourcopyrights.org/

Perhaps this Center could be approached about doing something 
similar for the kind of licenses at issue here?

Sandy Thatcher


At 9:56 PM -0500 2/28/11, Hamaker, Charles wrote:

>I wonder how we get to the people who actually write these 
>licenses. I can't imagine that CEO's actually know what they are 
>saying to the primary customers with what are insulting or 
>illegal or just plain bad business practices. An enormous amount 
>of the goodwill in the development with publisher's over the 
>last decade is being undercut by outrageous demands being seen 
>in license agreements.
>
>Would a series of workshops perhaps in three parts, one on 
>negative terms that are deal breakers, one on terms libraries 
>like and a third on library terms publishers don't like 
>sponsored perhaps by SSP or NASIG or ARL or NISO or some group 
>of organizations get to the CEO's and lawyers who are actually 
>responsible for these things? I doubt they can get together 
>themselves, that would be seen I believe as monopolistic 
>behavior, but perhaps a third party can do it? I don't think 
>there are enough consultants in the industry worldwide to get to 
>all of them. And they don't seem to be getting to best of 
>practice on their own. What we have done as groups or 
>individuals isn't getting through even to the largest publishers 
>in spite of the best efforts of a whole host of voices.
>
>If not amenable to any joint action perhaps for legal reasons, 
>then perhaps we need well advertised sessions at several major 
>conferences?
>
>Chuck Hamaker
>UNC Charlotte
>Atkins Library