Model Generic Licenses: Cooperation and Competition

✍ Scribed by John Cox

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 92 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-7913
• DOI: 10.1016/s0098-7913(99)00066-0

✦ Synopsis

This article is an interim report on a project commissioned by the worldÕs major subscription agents: the development of a suite of model licenses of electronic content to libraries. The use of primary journals in electronic form is a relatively recent event; both publishers and librarians are feeling their way. New business models may emerge, and model licenses will have to provide language that reßects new developments as they emerge.

The driving force behind generic licenses is a recognition of the need for a predictable environment in which model language can be found and used to express the outcome of most negotiations, whatever that outcome might be. The variety of licenses that both publishers and vendors offer contain much that is common in substance but different in expression. As a result, legal counsel is required to review each licenseÑa time-consuming and expensive process. If acceptable wording can be found to express the many variables that can emerge from negotiation, then the process can be shortened and speeded up.

With this in mind, Þve subscription agents commissioned John Cox Associates to develop a set of models, or Òprecedents.