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Comments
Sought on "Public Draft" of AALL Guide to Fair Business
Practices for Legal Publishers
For Immediate Release
June 20, 2002
The AALL Special
Committee on Fair Business Practices is pleased to announce that
it has completed a "public draft" of the AALL Guide
to Fair Business Practices for Legal Publishers and is now seeking
comments from all AALL members and other interested parties. The
public draft is available on the CRIVPage, the Web site of AALL's
Committee on Relations with Information Vendors, at http://www.aallnet.org/committee/criv/resources/fairpractice/publicdraft.pdf.
BACKGROUND:
On January 19, 2000, the Federal Trade Commission rescinded its
Guides for the Law Book Industry (16 C.F.R. pt. 256). The
guides had served as a standard of acceptable practices by legal
information providers. In rescinding the guides, the FTC stated
that: "Industry associations or purchaser associations, such
as AALL or AALS, can adopt guides of their own to educate sellers
and purchasers about the information purchasers of legal reference
materials need to make purchasing decisions. Indeed, eliminating
the Guides may provide the incentive for these associations to develop
their own guides that address their members' most important concerns."
The full text of FTC rescission is available at http://www.aallnet.org/committee/criv/resources/ftc/ftcfinal.htm.
Pursuant to
strategic direction 4 of the 2000-2005 Strategic Plan, AALL leadership
appointed a Special Committee on Fair Business Practices to "respond
to the expressed need for a set of guidelines for law publishers
doing business with librarians and other consumers of legal information."
The committee embarked on a process designed to realize a primary
initiative of strategic direction 4: "a model code of fair
business practices for legal publishers that is an accepted standard
in the industry." In fall 2001, the committee invited all interested
parties to submit their suggestions for provisions that ought to
be included in an AALL fair business practices guide. The committee
carefully studied the suggestions it received prior to meeting in
early January to discuss the content and structure of the guide
and to begin the drafting process. Drafting continued through multiple
iterations throughout the spring. The result of that process is
the "public draft" released today.
INVITATION:
The committee now invites written comments and suggestions on the
public draft of the AALL Guide to Fair Business Practices for
Legal Publishers. To ensure that a full range of views is received,
the committee seeks input from the broad spectrum of individuals
and organizations interested in and affected by the business practices
of legal publishers as they relate to librarians and other consumers
of legal information. Written comments should be submitted by July
15 to Frank Houdek, Chair, AALL Special Committee on Fair Business
Practices, Southern Illinois University School of Law, Carbondale,
Illinois 62901?6803; phone: 618/453?8788; fax: 618/453?8728; e-mail:
houdek@siu.edu. Submission by
e-mail, fax, or letter is acceptable, though e-mail is preferred.
In addition
to this period of written comment, the committee will conduct a
"town meeting" at the AALL Annual Meeting in Orlando on
July 22 from 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to
share their views about the draft directly with the committee.
After considering
both the written comments and the suggestions received at the town
meeting, the committee will prepare a final version of the guide,
along with implementation recommendations, and submit it to the
AALL Executive Board for approval at the board's meeting in November.
The committee
would like to express its appreciation to all the individuals and
groups who shared their thoughts on this important subject last
fall. The committee looks forward to a similar level of response
now.
AALL Special
Committee on Fair Business Practices
Frank Houdek, Chair
Kathy Carlson
Chris Graesser
Kay Todd
Michelle Wu
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