On Thu, 27 Jun 2002, Amanda Pearce wrote:
> We ( at Loughborough University ) are considering taking up the BBC's
> offer of their trial news headline service: a "simple HTML-based box
> for inclusion on non-BBC websites. The box will initially provide
> your choice of headlines from our News and Sport sections, updated
> every minute of the day, ....easy to implement....etc"
>
> We registered an interest and were sent a rather hefty set of Terms
> and Conditions considering it was a 'first stage trial'
> What do the rest of you think about this idea?
Having worked for the BBC, I can confirm that this is standard practice in
all areas of their operations - they're very careful about laying out
terms and conditions with employees, contributors, partners and anyone
else.
I've never come across any other organisation that does this (or is so
organised about it).
In general, I think the practice of stating expectations in the form of
terms and conditions is a good one, but in practical terms, the shorter
these documents can be, the better. You also need legal advice / backing
if you're really going to go into the nitty gritty, like the Beeb do.
Worth a comparison with, say, the Amazon associates scheme, or other
newsfeeds to find out how other organisations cope with these kind of
content-sharing / quasi business relationships?
HTH,
Nicola Rogers
WWW Editorial Officer
University of Cambridge
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