Good morning listers,I'm writing in the hopes that some of you may have dealt with a similar situation or may have some advice on ways that my institution can improve and clarify our relationship with a media group that holds copyright to a local newspaper.About nine years ago, we acquired the clipping and photo files, microfilm, and bound volumes from a local newspaper. Since then, the production of a physical paper ended, and the parent company, mLive, produces only digital news content. I wasn't on staff at the time of acquisition, but from what I know they intended on disposing of the physical archive if we were not interested in any or all of the materials, giving us at least some leverage to renegotiate the agreement with them from c.2010.At this time, we are in the construction phase of a museum renovation, which includes integrating the archive into the main museum building (currently it and Collections staff are housed in a building across the street) so we anticipate greater visibility and use and believe this may be good timing, not to mention the very movement of the material to the main building is affecting (and sometimes dictating) construction and design decisions, so we feel it's essential to readdress our agreement with them.Our main points of contention are that the original agreement stipulates they get unfettered access to the collection, which sometimes comes at very inconvenient and unscheduled times, which as you can imagine, can be disruptive to our staff. Secondly, we have learned from those seeking to reproduce materials from the collection that the licensing fee is $300. Generally speaking materials reproduced for personal research or use do not get assessed a fee, but for example, a local professor is looking to include photos from the newspaper in an exhibition (I believe on campus) and has been assessed this hefty fee. This is especially frustrating, considering we have also hear they are difficult to communicate with and get approval from. I understand there is nothing I can do about their right to retain copyright, but hope they might be willing to negotiate lower fees for reproduction by non-profits or academic institutions for whom several hundred dollars is a cost they cannot bear.I find it hard to swallow that they receive all the financial reward for a collection of material that they found so invaluable that they would throw it in the trash if we didn't accept it, and for which they were not willing to expend any funds to store, arrange, or care for.I wondered if any of you out there are in or are aware of a similarly murky relationship with an outside entity that ties your hands like this or makes things difficult on your researchers, and if you have any suggestions on how we might successfully renegotiate an agreement. If you are or have been in a similar situation, I would be interested in seeing any of the agreements you have in place so that we have some reference for jargon, etc.Thank you all in advance!Best,Erica
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