Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 09:14:43 +0000
From: "Donnice Cochenour" <dcocheno@manta.library.ColoState.EDU>
Organization: colorado state university
Subject: Re: Westlaw license

I routinely change phrases on license agreements where they reference
other states to "state of Colorado"  and usually meet no resistance from
the publisher.  In only one case was this a problem and we agreed to
strike the mention of any state from the license instead of designating
one or the other.  This was eventually agreeable to both our legal
council and to the publisher.   Maybe you can agree to "remain
silent" on the issue of which state's laws take precedence.

Donnice Cochenour
Colorado State University
dcocheno@manta.colostate.edu

Steve Murden <smurden@GEMS.VCU.EDU> wrote:

> I hope someone else has encountered (and resolved) this issue.  Because of
> the pending gargantuan increase in Lexis/Nexis costs for academic libraries,
> we are exploring other options for accessing the same information online.
> One of the tools we are considering is Westlaw.
>
> We requested a trial period, and received and returned the appropriate
> license. The agreement states that any claims would be "litigated under the
> law of Minnesota".  Our legal people substituted "Virginia" for Minnesota.
> Westlaw has told us that they will not accept this change, and our legal
> people apparently insist on it.
>
> Has anyone else navigated around this issue?  Surely, our issue is not an
> uncommon one.  Or is Westlaw content to restrict usage of their product to
> just Minnesota?  I should point out that we do not have a law school,
> although we do have a significant number of courses that utilize legal
> research tools.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Steve Murden
> Virginia Commonwealth University
> smurden@gems.vcu.edu