[8887] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: JURIS - DOJ rejects TAP FOIA Request
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Sugarman)
Thu Dec 9 16:58:14 1993
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 16:49:17 -0500 (EST)
From: Alan Sugarman <sugarman@panix.com>
To: Miles R Fidelman <fidelman@civicnet.org>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.87.9312091402.A27203-0100000@world.std.com>
In a competitive field like typesetting, in a contract negotiation, the
typesetter will have a tough time negotiating ownership of the electronic
files. The AO contract says, I think, because after two years of effors
all I have extracted is an RFP for the 11th Circuit West contract, says:
H
"The Contractor shall not allow access to any data base which may
be produced during the printing of opinions under this Agreement, until
such time as the printed opinions are available to the public and/or
other data base vendors."
Nice and ambiguous, right. What if you paid an attorney to draft a clause
like that for you!!!!
On Thu, 9 Dec 1993, Miles R Fidelman wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Dec 1993, Selden E. Ball, Jr. wrote:
>
> > >Now, I ask the readers here how many private sector publishers hire a
> > >typesetting or printing firm and permitt the typesetter to own the
> > >database created. None. So, what is going on here.
> >
> > Don't be too sure about that. My understanding is that the copyright
> > office recently ruled that, unless the contract explicitly states otherwise,
> > printers, not the original artists, own the copyrights to art that they
> > have printed. Artwork may be a special case, I suppose, since
> > printers frequently have to make corrections to their production
> > methods to get good color reproduction. Nevertheless, this is a very
> > scary precedent.
> >
>
> If true, this is an interesting precedent. In most fields, work
> performed for hire (e.g. a consultant's report, custom software) is the
> property of the customer - unless the contract explicity states otherwise.
>
> Government contracts, particularly R&D contracts, will often explicitly
> grant the contractor rights to products, technology, etc. developed under
> contract - as a way to stimulate the private sector - but will usually
> keep an unlimited right to use the work for government purposes.
>
> Re. Westlaw - it would seem that both standard commercial practice, and
> standard government practice, have been thrown out the window.
>
>
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