READI

(Rights for Electronic Access to and Delivery of Information)

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INTRODUCTION

This guide, sponsored by the Coalition for Networked Information (and prepared by Robert Ubell Associates), offers a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of contractual language in the networked environment. It is designed to assist network vendors, suppliers, publishers, and buyers of networked information in their efforts to negotiate effective agreements.

In the course of the research which lead to this document, many institutions and individuals participated. During the initial phase of the study, it was decided that for simplicity and clarity two principal parties--"buyers" and "sellers" would be identified as the key signatories in these networked agreements. For the most part, "buyers" consist of institutions (such as libraries at universities and in industry), and "sellers" consist of publishers who provide networked information to such institutions. "Intermediaries" (such as those who repackage and resell information from publishers to institutions) are often considered sellers when they provide information to institutions. They can also be considered buyers when they purchase information from publishers. We have generally not used either "licensor" or "licensee" in favor of "seller" and "buyer," respectively.

Background

The READI Project was announced in the Fall of 1991. In the Summer of 1992 three expert panel discussions were convened with the goal of identifying whether and, if so, how contract law, in the form of licenses and related agreements between creators and users of published works, could be applied within the context of copyright law to ease the flow of networked information.

The responses of "sellers," "buyers," and "intermediaries" were studied, and the resulting report was sent for comment and review to an advisory committee of more than thirty-five interested parties and was then presented at the Fall 1992 Meeting of the CNI Task Force in Leesburg, Virginia.

The next step in the READI Project -- the development of a guide for buyers and sellers -- began in March 1994 with an all-day session of buyers and sellers. The Guide is conceived as a way of identifying networking issues, describing buyer/seller positions, and exploring business rationales to prepare both parties before entering negotiations for rights to networked information.

This Guide is an analysis of statements, experiences, and positions gathered from several years of research and does not represent the views of any single party or entity.

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