Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
This is a pretty annoying policy, and I wonder if it even really affects the publisher's bottom line at all.
Having said that, I don't really see much to the bait and switch claim. The language is in the contract, and if you can't understand it, you don't sign until you figure out what it means. Libraries are not a couple of volunteers who like to read; they are usually sophisticated legal entities with multi-million dollar budgets and several properties to manage. Like any similar business, they can afford to have a lawyer look over the contract if there's something they don't understand. It would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer money if they didn't.
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If you've looked at the language as quoted, and you think it's even possible for a non-lawyer, without the context of this discussion, to realize it *might* mean "if you allow out of area people to buy library cards we will offer you fewer books without reducing our prices," we disagree on this.
And if you think the Jefferson City Public Library, which fits in two rooms and has, I think, three employees, and which is funded by a town with a population of five thousand, is a "sophisticated legal entity with a multi-million dollar budget" that can obviously afford to hire a lawyer, we differ on that too.