[OAI-general] OAI and intellectual property issues

[Michael L. Nelson]

actually, to continue the analogy...

assuming that a SP attempting to create a Gracenote/CDDB situation, we can
probably count on another SP to come along, harvest the same DPs, and
provide similar services --  http://www.freecddb.org/

within the OAI context, we can handle rogue SPs.  now if a DP collects
eprints from users, and then signs an exclusive license with a SP...  well
that's a whole different ball game.

regards,

Michael

On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Thorsten Schwander wrote:

> 
> Hi,
> 
> for an actual example how a wonderful open project, a metadata collection
> that has been created by a community effort, a shared public resource, can be
> turned into a quagmire of heavy contracts, licensing fees, forced user
> registration and anti-competition clauses I want to point out the fate of the
> once free cddb, now Gracenote http://www.gracenote.com/terms.html .
> 
> There are threats, cease and desist letters to developers of alternatives,
> and even lawsuits. Some quotes from news-services
> 
> 
> 
> Basically cddb is a online lookup service for music CD titles and songlists
> that provides this information to CD playing software. The database was build
> by individual users contributing their manually generated datasets to the
> database -- i.e. the users typed in the songlists.
> 
> 
> "Today when I attempted to rip a new CD I bought, I received this
> message. "Your CD player application is either not licensed to use the
> Gracenote(tm) CDDB(tm) service or its license has expired. If you are unsure
> what this means, please see our web site at http://www.cddb.com/lic/Grip. If
> you are a developer and feel you have received this message in error or wish
> to get your application licensed, please contact support for assistance.""
> 
> 
> "CDDB is refusing connections from Media Jukebox until the Media Jukebox guys
> sign an "exclusive agreement" to use CDDB's database."
> 
> 
> and http://www.gracenote.com/press/2001051000.html
> 
>    BERKELEY, CA (May 10, 2001) -- Gracenote (formerly CDDB) a content delivery
> platform provider specializing in music recognition services, today announced
> a lawsuit against Roxio, Inc., at present, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
> Adaptec, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT) for breach of contract, patent infringement,
> trademark infringement and other violations of Federal law.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> While not entirely the same I think there are some obvious analogies here,
> and it goes to show that as soon as commercial interest are involved almost
> nothing is inconceivable.
> 
> Could a OAI service provider, who has built a rich collection of metadata via
> OAI, claim exclusive rights to that collection. Could they prevent others to
> build a similar collection or provide similar services and functionality?
> 
> 
> Cheers
> Thorsten
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---
Michael L. Nelson			
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University of North Carolina 		mln@ils.unc.edu
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