ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 referred to the possibility of supplying potential licensees with electronic files for review purposes only. The customer would normally expect these to be supplied free of charge as PDFs (Portable Document Files), but careful consideration should be given to the supply of full files of a title to potential licensees in markets which may be subject to piracy problems, or where the track record of the potential licensee is unknown – partial files may be preferable. Watermarking files may be of help to deter unauthorized reproduction, but will not prevent unauthorized translation. When supplying files to potential licensees in more reliable markets, it may still be wise to consider asking the recipient to sign a brief confidentiality agreement confirming that the files are for review purposes only and that they will be destroyed if licence arrangements do not go ahead. There are many occasions when a deal is finalized and the licensee wishes
to acquire duplicate production material in order to produce the licensed edition. Examples might include the sale of English-language territorial rights where the licensee is manufacturing its own edition (see Chapter 9), paperback rights where the licensee is independent of the licensor (Chapter 11), low-price reprint rights (Chapter 12), other reprint rights (Chapter 13), serial rights (Chapter 14), translation rights (Chapter 16) and electronic licences (Chapter 25). The material may be for the whole book (in the case of an English-language reprint edition) or for some or all of the illustrations (in the case of serial rights or a translation). Traditionally, publishers supplied licensees with duplicate film, but today
the majority of material is supplied in the form of application files in electronic form, either for the whole book or perhaps for the illustrations only, depending on what type of edition the licensee will be producing; nowadays, film would only be supplied in the case of licences for older books where the original publisher has not converted the material to electronic form. As a general point, it should be remembered that the supply of production material to a licensee removes control over print quantities from the licensor; this may be significant in the case of mass-market illustrated books which have been licensed to particular markets on the basis of
restricted print runs (e.g. central and eastern Europe, Russia and China). In such cases, it may be wise to consider a contractual requirement to see copies of all printer’s documentation to verify the size of printing undertaken, as there have been many cases of unauthorized excess printings being undertaken in these markets. It is important to establish exactly what the licensee requires before
obtaining a quotation from an external supplier as well as when files are accessible directly by the original publisher. If it is production material for the whole book, will cover material also be required, or will the licensee want to produce a different cover design, either from choice or because there may be copyright issues with allowing the original cover image to be used? It is always preferable to specify these items separately. If only illustration material is required, will it be all illustrations or only certain types: colour plates, black and white halftones or line drawings? Again, it may be wise to specify the elements separately unless the licensee has clearly specified that production material is required for all illustrations in the book. It may be cheaper to supply material for all pages containing illustrations, leaving the licensee to remove the original text if the book is to be translated. Consideration should also be given to whether the licensee may require the removal of English-language lettering from the illustrations themselves, and whether this will be simple to achieve (a book designed for coedition sales should normally have the lettering on a separate black plate).
