Candace, if you have a (one-time) Commercial Use Fee, that could cover this situation. You can also develop a contract that would spell out the deal on the 30% proceeds.

If he is willing to front the costs of publication and you collect the commerical use fee upfront, I don't see a problem with proceeding. If the book doesn't sell, then it doesn't sell. If it sells like hotcakes, then you benefit. Your institutuion isn't out anything, so I don't see much risk in the endeavor. Your providing some good customer service that may benefit you in the long run.

JMHO.

TLB

In a message dated 2/17/2004 12:51:40 PM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:

> A family researcher want to publish a set of diaries that my instituion
> owns.  He intends on paying for the publication and then would give us 30%
> of the proceeds, supposedly.  At first he had this very extensive
> proposition regarding the sales and marketing of these diaries, which have
> an extremely limited audience...at best. We decided that we preferred not to
> be involved with him -- the whole idea seemed far fetched -- I won't launch
> into the details here, but just keep in mind that the material in question
> is really minor, in the scheme of things, and he was making a great deal out
> it.
> Anyway, today we received a rather tersely worded email from this man
> claiming that the material is in the public domain (it is) and we can't use
> copyright issues to deny him (we weren't, as far as I know).  We are a
> private institution and it's my belief that if we don't want to give this
> man access and allow him to photograph the diaries for publication, we don't
> have to.  I hope this doesn't come across as sounding petty, and we could
> possibly benefit in the long run (doubtful as to how much, really, given the
> nature of the material)...but it just seems like we could be opening up a
> can of worms with this guy.
> We don't want to do anything that will result in bad PR.  It just seems like
> he feels he is entitled to this access, or something like that.  We will be
> passing along his recent email to our attorney, but we may just have to
> relent. I'm now thinking about asking for a sum up front for the privilege.
> We most likely will never publish them ourselves, however, they have been
> microfilmed to provide easier access. It's just, well, the
> principle of the
> thing!
> Thanks for any input,
> Candace Perry
> Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

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