OCLC's New License for Bibliographic Records

[richards1000@comcast.net]

Colleagues:

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I don't believe the list has 
discussed OCLC's recent attempt to adopt a license agreement to 
govern its members' uses of OCLC bibliographic records. I'd be 
interested to hear listmembers' views. I think this issue is 
significant because of the potential consequences of using 
licenses to restrict downstream use of metadata (among them the 
possibility that OCLC member libraries will be barred from 
contributing their catalog records to search engines), and 
because I think university counsel and licensing personnel will 
want to review the proposed OCLC license carefully before 
acceding to it. The proposed license, 
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcat/catalog/policy/recordusepolicy.pdf, 
has been controversial for several reasons, among them its 
retrospective application, its breach provisions, and the 
substantial penalties for noncompliance. A summary of the 
proposed license appears at 
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcat/catalog/policy/default.htm, 
and a FAQ at 
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcat/catalog/policy/questions/default.htm. 
OCLC's Karen Calhoun discusses the proposed license at 
http://community.oclc.org/metalogue/archives/2008/11/notes-on-oclcs-updated-record.html. 
The existing policy governing members' use of OCLC records (to be 
replaced eventually by the proposed license) appears at 
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/support/documentation/worldcat/records/guidelines/default.htm. 
On January 13, OCLC announced, 
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/news/releases/20092.htm , that it would 
postpone implementation of the proposed license until the third 
quarter of 2009, and set up a committee to receive additional 
feedback and perhaps propose amendments. The Guardian of London 
recently featured an article discussing this matter:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/22/library-search-engines-books. 
http:Some criticism of the proposed policy appears at 
http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2009/01/why-libraries-must-reject-oclc-policy.php, 
http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/OCLC_Policy_Change, and 
http://watchdog.net/c/stop-oclc. The preceding comments are not 
offered as legal advice, and do not in fact constitute legal 
advice.

Rob Richards

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Robert C. Richards, Jr., J.D.*, M.S.L.I.S., M.A.
Philadelphia, PA
richards1000@comcast.net
* Member New York bar, retired status.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~