A friend passed this along to me and I figured that law-libbers would be
able to appreciate it as well...
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Stuart Zimmerman
Stoel Rives
(206) 386-7502
srb-lib@wln.com
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Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 18, 1994
Just Go to the Bookstore and Buy One
Recently, the California State University system placed a purchase
order (PO) for a book published by a small New Canaan, Conn., company,
The Information Economics Press. The following is a copy of the letter
the press sent back to the California procurement officer. It
illustrates some of the joys of doing business with government organizations.
Mr. M.J. Whitson
California State University
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
Attn: Charleen Wood, Procurement and Support Services Officer
We have your eight page PO# 940809 for one copy of our book ``The
Politics of Information Management.'' We are unable to fill your $49
order for the following reasons:
- In the Purchase Order Terms and Conditions you wish us to waive any
infringement of our copyrighted materials by officers, agents and
employees of the California State University. We cannot agree to make
available a valuable Copyright for the price of a book.
- You will withhold all payments or make a 38% withholding in order to
file a year-end 1099 form. We are unable to handle the paperwork of a
separate 1099 for every book we sell. That would double our paperwork.
- You are requiring us to fill a Vendor Data Record (form 204) which
is largely identical with your Vendor Information Sheet form. Filling
both forms takes excessive amounts of time.
- We are a small business, and therefore you require that we submit a
copy of the OSMB Small Business Certification. We do not have an OSMB
Certification and do not know where to get one.
- Your attachment to form 204 specifies that I obtain a determination
with regard to my being classified either as a resident or non-resident
subject to California tax withholdings, to be reclaimed by filing at
year-end California tax returns. We do not plan to make any tax
filings in California.
- Your contract rider contains a Privacy Statement on unspecified
disclosures that makes us liable for penalties of up to $20,000.
- As a condition for our filling out the order you are asking us to
post statements notifying all employees of compliance with Code Section
8355 and certifying as to our adopting a four point Drug-Free Awareness
program that complies with California law. Deviations are punishable
as perjury under the laws of the State of California. Please note that
our firm has only two employees, who do not take even an aspirin.
- Your Minority/Women Business Enterprise Self Certification Form 962
requires detailed statistics on ethnic characteristics of our firm,
defining each ethnic group according to their stated geographic
origins. To assist in making such distinctions you provide a
check-list of ethnic identity of the owners of this firm, leaving us by
default with only one open choice, Caucasian, which you do not define.
My husband and I do not know of any ancestors who may have ever been in
the proximity of the Caucasian mountains, and therefore we are unable
to comply with your requirement to identify our ethnic origin according
to your geographic rules.
We therefore suggest that you purchase our book at a bookstore.
Mona Frankel
Publisher
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Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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