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2009 The oP wer of Collaboration: WorldCat's Copyright Evidence Registry Roger V. Skalbeck University of Richmond, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Roger V. Skalbeck, The Power of Collaboration: WorldCat's Copyright Evidence Registry, AALL Spectrum, April 2009, at 14-15, 32-33.

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Power of

WorldCat's Copyright Evidence Registry

By Roger V. Skalbeck ooks are for use." Most librarians will recognize this as Ranganathan's first law of science. Unfortunately for those who want to digitize books, · the time-consuming search for current copyright status information may make the project too burdensome to undertake or too fraught with legal risks. In effect, some books are less available for use than others.

One who wants to copy a work in 7 percent of the books they reviewed. print or digital form faces many hurdles This represents more than one million to ensure unrestricted use of the work: books that could be digitized without The records in the WorldCat are choose work~ in the public domain, concern for copyright status. Tempering very accurate because they come directly obtain permission for free use, or pay this number slightly, the l996 from the WorldCat of more copyright holders for reproduction rights. restoration of copyright in foreign works than 100 million bibliographic records Of course, there's also the option to appears to have prevented a large that have been edited, revised, and rely on a fair use argument, as Google number of items from entering the verified for many years. When you essentially does with most materials public domain. search for a record on the WorldCat included in the Google Book Search CER, data is pulled directly from project. Those who do nm want to take WorldCat, so there are no issues of data the risks that Google does, however, synchronization. Also, by using the need a better way to find out what may One of the underlying obstacles to WorldCat CER, contributors can focus be legally reproduced. reproducing older books is that there's on recording copyright information Mass digitization has been going on no central place to look for information without worrying about bibliographic for a while, so some of the ~easier" projects about what is protected by copyright information. of interest to law have already and what may have passed into the Another aspect of the CER already been addressed. Gale's The Making of public domain. Responding ro this need, partially implemented is the inclusion Modern Law focuses on treatises from OCLC recently introduced a new bysrem of records from the Stanford Copyright 1800-1926, while the various LexisNexis for tracking various copyright details for Renewal database. Stanford's project Congressional projects include works of published books. The new service, still in includes digitized renewal details for the U.S. government. These impressive beta, is caJled the WorldCat Copyright books, scanned from records of the colleciions are by no means easy from a Evidence Registry (CER). It could be a U.S. Copyright Office at the Library technical perspective; however, neither very valuable resource for recording and of Congress. Although renewaJ is not publisher had difficult copyright status sharing copyright status information. currently required for copyright questions to face before digitizing these Briefly described, the WorldCat protection, it was necessary for sets. Works published before 1923 are CER a community-driven database for maximum copyright protection for some in the public domain, and works of the is people to record and share information works, in particular those published federal government cannot be copyrighted. between 1923 and 1964. Under For anybody who wants to digitize about the copyright status of books. By making this tool available to the world, certain conditions, works automatically new content, what else is available? passed into the public domain if people OCLC seeks to use the power of mass As it turns out, there ;1.re many books did not renew copyright registrations for collaboration to solve the daunting task that might be in the public domain, but works published during this period. of tracking copyright information for determining the copyright status of OCLC is still refining the algorithms for millions of books. these materials can be difficult. Items matching Stanford's data with WorldCat People using the WorldCat CER published between 1923 and 1963 may records. /\s the record matching svstem can contribute data to annotate be found to be in the public domain increases, so does the value ofWorldCat publisher status, indic.ate copyright if a specific set of criteria are examined, CER records. including such factors such as publi­ registration details, or document a cation location, copyright renewal, and copyright search for a specific work. For adherence to certain formalities. instance, you might record that another company acquired a publisher's work.~ or OCLC estimates that there are more The WorldCat i~ not a perfect that copyright was renewed for a book. than 1. 9 million records in WorldCat solution. First and foremost, the CER is for books published in the United States Annotations are listed under the name not a legal registry, and this is not of the contributor, which can be an between 1923 and 1963. A Copyright something that OCLC seeks to change. Office study from 1961 estimated that institution's OCLC credentials or a Because it is not an official government the copyrights had been renewed for only self-selected user name for individuals.

(wntinued on pag< 32)

© 2009 Roger V Skalheck • ima.~e @ iStockpbvto. cmn

AALL Spectrum I April 2009 • registry, the WorldCat CER can't paying) group of members, and less CER Entries provide legally binding proof of useful even to that group than it copyright status. In fact, you can't would be if it were truly open. To illustrate the type ot information currentlv use the World.Cat CER to "Right now the registry is sparsely recorded ln the system, below are search f~r out-of-copyright works. populated. It will take a critical ma~s of entries trom three works In the Another possible shortcoming of the records and contributors to become a World.Cat CER project is that it may trustworthy source of copyright evidence. Wor!dGat CER where copyright Where will that critical mass come details have been added not be "sexy" enough to encourage by widespread participation. The hope is from? What is OCLC doing to build it participating users. that records will grow through the power quickly? How will users know when the of collective input, such as with registry has reached it?" • Tha world that was, by Bowman. Wikipedia, where enthusiasts eagerly Jolm G. (John Gabbert), 1877· enhance records. In the book world, 1962. (1926, OCLC 111812021) ir also works for projects like Because this is a communitv-somced f ntry 11: The work has a LibraryThing, where community project without verification' of entries, ' copyright statement Copyright value is added not only by enhanced users will need to devise a way to i 926 by the Macmillan Company classification, but also through book evaluate contributed information. One -Copyright statement relationship references and shared new feature of the WorldCat CER Citation: Examination of boQf< networks for users to discover readers suggests that it will soon help w inform Entry 12: Copyright renewat with similar interests. risk assessment decisions and lead users has rmt been foufld For people printing records from to better copyright registration details. Clt11tion.· Not found In Stanton'.! the WorldCat CER, there are data This enhancement will allow Copyright Renewal Database limitations. Although one can search by subscribers to run copyright rules lSBN, the numbers don't display in the analysis for batches of works. Someone record output. Also, there is no unified interested in digitizing a book could run • Mathews famlly record; way to print all CER record elements a batch process ro check for particular descendants of John and Sa.ran for a single work because they appear key words or relevant information in Matllews of County Tyrone,. · in separate screens on rhe Web site. annotations, such as the country or year Northern Ireland, by Bowman, Molly Kleinman, a librarian from of publication. OCLC does not dictate 1924- (1953, Michigan, raises two additional concerns how the analysis will run; instead the 559) about the Wo.rldCat CER in a post to information seeker must determine the Entry: Copyright renewal her blog (www.mollykleinman.com): level of analysis and documentation has not been found "OCLC claims and enforces needed to evaluate the risk of using Citation: 9/5108 email ffom copyrights in its bibliographic records. particular materials. author. to Maija Cravens, WHS While it grants member libraries regarding ~·title sent to Google permission to make broad use of those &.$ part oHhe UW~Madlson records, my understanding is that the library ~1roject with Google and same is not true for non-members. One feature not included in the registry ttls attempt to get GBS to dis.play If OCLC extends that policy to the is the ability to upload scanned evidence. ln full view, followlng quote in Copyright Evidence Registry, it risks If participants could upload sca1111ed 9/4/06 email to Google which becoming just another walled garden copies of copyright evidence, the ls in the email to Maija: that is useful only to a select (and authenticity of reported data would be ily and Sarah Mathews of County Tyn:ma, Nort:fiem Ireland, in the WorldCat Records Describing Books collections of tM Wisconsin Published in the United States Histo~ical Society library, MadiS.on, WI, was digitized and Book Searen. Before 1923 Ms a copyright 1953 date. l did not renew the copyright. which expirsd, and this message ts to request 1923-1963 that you open the bc;ok to the publlc, withoutlimitati-0ns in any way." ·

• How children learn.to mad. After 1963 by Mackintosh, Hel~n I( (Helen Katherine), 1897· (1952, OClCI 1110565 Entry: The work have Missing Date a copyright statement Citation: 11/a

II AALL Spectrum I April 2009 enhanced. OCLC's Bill Carney says they In addition to bibliographic data, are considering options for users to OpenLibrary includes scanned versions upload scanned information and linking of books in the public domain that users to existing digitized works. For now, can download and search in fu!l-rext. these features are not in the current This gives OpenLibrary a distinct Press Release: OCLC pilots WorldCat system. Some contributions may have advantage over WorldCat CER. Nor Copyright Evidence Registry a greater degree of authenticity, but only can you find out about works that www..org/us/en/news/releases/ without scanned images to back up may be out of copyright, you can also assertions, this project seems less useful read and search the scanned works. 200832.htm for efficient copyright determinations. Because the OpenLibrary ecosystem has That said, some evidence contributions a broader range of features, it is likely WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry are easy to locate, such as copyright to appeal to a wider audience, although www.worldcat.org/copyrightevidence registration numbers or citation to librarians may question the value of pages in printed reference works. records that anyone can edit. Copyright Term and the Public OpenLibrary plans to include Domain in the United States copyright status information in their www.copyright.comell.edu/public_ records. According to sources familiar domain In conclusion, the WorldCat CER with the project, rhis will come in the is a great starring point for finding or form of a computational algorithm Stanford University Copyright to determine what is or is not in the recording notes on rhe copyright status Renewal Database of works. Even without extensive public domain. This approach sounds annotations, searching the WorldCat similar to the copyright mles engine http://collections.stanford.edu/ CER for copyright details is a good developed for WorldCat CER, with one copyrightrenewals way for people to help document search important distinction. As described, the efforts before making use of a work OpenLibrary approach appears to be U.S. Copyright Office Report on that may require permission. based on a mathematical analysis with Orphan Works In addition to tracking books uniform rules integrated into the system. www.copyright.gov/orphan/orphan­ that may no longer be protected by In contrast, WorldCat CER rules are report.pdf copyright, WorldCat CER could also meant to be user-defined and fully be valuable for ascertaining the status customizable. LibraryThing of orphan works, i.e., works whose With this feature, OpenLibrary www.librarything.com copyright owner cannot be found. potentially would have the advantage In a report on orphan works, the U.S. of being fully integrated as a free feature. Copyright office suggested that However, users will probably want Open Library legislation might be necessary to limit flexibility in applying any automated www.openlibrary.org liability for those who use copyrighted analysis because strict mathematical works after performing a diligent search analysis isn't possible. Google Book Search Bibliography for a copyright owner who cannot be www. dig ital-scholarship. found. There is a fair amount of debate org/gbsb/gbsb.htm as to what constitutes a reasonablv Projects like WorldCat CER are di!igenr search, but searching Wo~ldCat wonderful resources for collectively OCLC's new Copyright Evidence CER should help to strengthen a claim recording and sharing the copyright Registry of due diligence. To date, the United status of hooks. If publishers and mollykleinman.com/2008/08/26/ States has passed no orphan works libraries contribute large amounts oclcs-new-copyrig ht-evidence-registry legislation. of data to the system, it will become an invaluable resource. In addition, WorldCat CER may also become a Hirtle, Peter B. "Copyright Renewal, OCLC is not the only organization resource for finding copyright owners. Copyright Restoration, and the working to build an expansive database Anybody starting a digitization project Difficulty of Determining suitable for tracking the copyright should consider rhe CER as a place to Copyright Status." D-Ub Magazine status of works. A similar project is share information discovered when Volume 14 Number 7/8 (July/ Openlibrary, a collaboration of the investigating the copyright status of August 2008) 2 Oct 2008 and the Boston Public books. Without a collective and shared www.dlib.org/dlib/july08/hirtle/ Library, which aims to create "one \Veb resource such as this, digitization will 07hirtie.html page for every book." The service is freely remain too risky for many to undertake accessible to anybody on the Internet. without rears of liabilitv for Barbara Ringer, "Study No. 31: The aim of OpenLibrary is to unauthorized reproduc~ion. B Renewal of Copyright" (i 960), create bibliographic records for books, reprinted in Library of Congress incorporating direct links for users to Copyright Office. Copyright Jaw buy, borrow, and browse them. They link revision: Studies prepared tor the to sites like Amazon, WorldCat, and Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, , as well as book trading and Copyrights of the Committee on sites like BookMooch and Tide Trader. The content is presented in a wil

AALL Spectrum I April 2009 •