On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 11:33 PM, - Jonathan Rochkind, Johns Hopkins Univ. <
rochkind_at_jhu.edu> wrote:
> It remains a question I have why anyone need's OCLC's permission to share
> records that were created by OCLC member libraries, who own the copyright
> for them, not OCLC---if there is any copyright that can be
> held on a cataloging record in the first place (if it is mainly
> 'factual content' there may not be).
>
> If it is because of license/contract we sign with OCLC when we
> become members--I think the members should pressure OCLC to change this, I
> do not think it serves us well, and OCLC's ultimate mission and purpose
> is to serve us.
>
1) As you surmise, libraries who sign valid contracts with OCLC
restricting the redistribution of records are likely bound by those
agreements.
2) OCLC cannot and does not claim copyright in individual bibliographic
records; The copyright filed for in December 1982, and awarded in December
1984 was purely a compilation copyright. See Brown(1985) for a statement
by the then OCLC president explaining his actions. The majority of that
issue (Vol 11, no. 4)of the Journal of Academic Librarianship is devoted to
the subject of the OCLC copyright. See also Barry(1993).
3) The theory on which the 1984 award was based was that of
sweat-of-the-brow. That award was subsequent to the facts of, but prior to
the decision in Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co.,
499 U.S. 340 (1991). This decision unequivocally states that
sweat-of-the-brow copyright is not available within the United States, and
that copyright within compilations of facts is `thin', covering only
coordination, selection, and arrangement.
4) Redistribution and sharing of records by OCLC members is governed by the
guidelines for the use and transfer of OCLC derived records, last updated
November 16th 1987 (OCLC 1987).
5) The guidelines as currently written explicitly exclude from the
definition of a transfer "online access provided to end-user patrons of a
library in authorized possession" (OCLC 1987, §II.2).
6) I am not a lawyer. I did not stay at a Holiday Inn express last night. I
did curl up with a restatement, but my cat prefers Corbin. My cat is also
not a lawyer.
Simon
[Barry(1993)] Janice R. Franklin Barry. Database ownership and copyright
issues among automated library networks: an analysis and case study. Ablex
Publishing Corporation, 1993.
[Brown(1985)] Rowland C. Brown. OCLC, Copyright, and Access to Information:
Some Thoughts. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 11(4):197, 1985. ISSN
00991333.
[OCLC(1987)] OCLC, Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived
Records. OCLC, 1987 URL:
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/records/guidelines/default.htm
Received on Sun May 25 2008 - 18:30:20 EDT