Permitted use of LoC records obtained using yaz-client

Dear Readers,

This question is somewhat off list, but as I have not yet
received a
response from the Library of Congress, and as I am sure that
some
readers will know the answer, I hope you will bear with me.

Over the past while, I have been establishing the basis for
a digital
archive designed to capture, store, index, preserve, and
distribute
materials pertinent to Indology and South Asian Buddhology:
Indica et
Buddhica - Repositorium:

        http://ind
ica-et-buddhica.org/repositorium

Eventually, I'd like to be able to provide an archive that
would enable
Indologists and South Asian Buddhologists to catalogue and
store a
variety of materials including articles, books, images,
theses,
software, working papers and so on.

At the start, to get things moving, I would like to give
users the
opportunity to establish an Indological and Buddhological
bibliographical database. My initial concern has been to set
the
foundation by populating the database with relevant and high
quality
bibliographical records.

My preferred approach is to obtain Library of Congress
records via
`z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager' using yaz-client, and then to
filter and
map the LoC Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) to the
Indica et
Buddhica Dublin Core Metadata Element Set.

Full `source' and `rights' details would be given in the
Dublin Core
Metadata Record, i.e.:

*****

dc.rights: As a publicly supported institution, the Library
[of
Congress] generally does not own rights in its collections.
Therefore,
it does not charge permission fees for use of such material
and
generally does not grant or deny permission to publish or
otherwise
distribute material in its collections.

dc.rights.uri:
http
://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html#copyright            
    

dc.source: Library of Congress Metadata Object Description
Schema
(MODS) mapped to Indica et Buddhica Dublin Core Metadata
Element
Set                  

dc.source.uri: z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager 

*****        

Despite the above, I was wondering if any readers you know
whether I
would need to obtain special permission to use Library of
Congress
records in this way, and if I would be allowed to
redistribute modified
versions of such records?


I would be grateful for any comments or assistance.


Best regards,

 Richard Mahoney


-- 
Richard MAHONEY | internet: http://indica-et-buddh
ica.org/
Littledene      | telephone/telefax (man.): +64 3 312 1699
Bay Road        | cellular: +64 27 482 9986
OXFORD, NZ      | email: r.mahoneyindica-et-buddhica.org
-----------------------------------------------------------
Philologica: http://ind
ica-et-buddhica.org/philologica/
Repositorium: http://in
dica-et-buddhica.org/repositorium/


_______________________________________________
Yazlist mailing list
Yazlistlists.indexdata.dk
http://lists.indexdata.dk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/yaz
list

Hello,

Richard Mahoney wrote:

> My preferred approach is to obtain Library of Congress
records via
> `z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager' using yaz-client, and then
to filter and
> map the LoC Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS)
to the Indica et
> Buddhica Dublin Core Metadata Element Set.

[...]

> Despite the above, I was wondering if any readers you
know whether I
> would need to obtain special permission to use Library
of Congress
> records in this way, and if I would be allowed to
redistribute
> modified versions of such records?

I am a layman, so the following is merely to the best of my
knowledge.
For proper legal advice, you would have to consult a lawyer.
 Nor do
I speak for the IWF Wissen und Medien gGmbH (my current
employer).

I am currently working on an application that does something
rather
similar.  
The purpose of Z39.50 and OAI is to provide public access to
bibliographic 
records.  If an institution doesn't want records to be used
in this way,

they would not be providing the interfaces.  In addition, I
believe
that the data providers will publish information on
copyright,
licenses, and/or terms of use, as applicable.  Nowadays,
this will
probably be on a website.    

I believe one must distinguish between the bibiographic
records and the 
resources themselves.  I don't believe that the
bibliographic records
are subject to same kinds of restrictions that apply to the
records
themselves.  However, one would be well-advised to check
this first.

Modifying records is a somewhat tricky issue.  I believe the
best
solution is to modify them as little as possible, and to
make
unmodified versions available to users.  It should be easy
for
users to discover what, if any changes, have been made,
perhaps 
by using "diffs", i.e., the output of the
"diff" utility applied to 
plain-text versions of the records.

I have an interest in Buddhist literature and Buddhology
myself, and I
find your idea quite interesting.  It is the sort of
application I
hope that my package would be used for.  My package, the IWF
Metadata
Harvester, is available at: http://ftp.gwdg.d
e/pub/gnu2/iwfmdh/
I'm currently working on putting together a new
distribution, so the
files there are somewhat out-of-date.  

If you have any interest in discussion, I would be glad to
hear from
you (perhaps off-list, though).

Laurence Finston

_______________________________________________
Yazlist mailing list
Yazlistlists.indexdata.dk
http://lists.indexdata.dk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/yaz
list

Hi Richard,

I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a pound of salt, but in
general, 
intellectual content produced by the US federal government
(and I would 
take this to definitely include bibliographic metadata
produced by the 
Library of Congress)  is not protected by copyright -- it is
in the 
public domain. There are exceptions, such as when the
content is 
produced by private contractors who don't hand over the
copyright to the 
government, but I have never heard that this applies in the
case of the 
LoC catalog. Lots of commercial and not-for-profit entities
do 
interesting and wonderful stuff with the LoC metadata.

Other resources, in paticular private ones, may very well
restrict usage 
  of the metadata.. if that is done, such restrictions
should be made 
clear in the records themselves, or in the agreement you
make with the 
operator prior to using it.

I would encourage anyone who makes use of thse public
resource in batch 
(i.e. non-interactive) 'harvesting' systems to make sure
that their 
harvesters show good behavior. Put delays between operations
to ensure 
that you don't swamp the server and spoil it for other
people.

Cheers,

--Sebastian

Richard Mahoney wrote:
> Dear Readers,
> 
> This question is somewhat off list, but as I have not
yet received a
> response from the Library of Congress, and as I am sure
that some
> readers will know the answer, I hope you will bear with
me.
> 
> Over the past while, I have been establishing the basis
for a digital
> archive designed to capture, store, index, preserve,
and distribute
> materials pertinent to Indology and South Asian
Buddhology: Indica et
> Buddhica - Repositorium:
> 
>         http://ind
ica-et-buddhica.org/repositorium
> 
> Eventually, I'd like to be able to provide an archive
that would enable
> Indologists and South Asian Buddhologists to catalogue
and store a
> variety of materials including articles, books, images,
theses,
> software, working papers and so on.
> 
> At the start, to get things moving, I would like to
give users the
> opportunity to establish an Indological and
Buddhological
> bibliographical database. My initial concern has been
to set the
> foundation by populating the database with relevant and
high quality
> bibliographical records.
> 
> My preferred approach is to obtain Library of Congress
records via
> `z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager' using yaz-client, and then
to filter and
> map the LoC Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS)
to the Indica et
> Buddhica Dublin Core Metadata Element Set.
> 
> Full `source' and `rights' details would be given in
the Dublin Core
> Metadata Record, i.e.:
> 
> *****
> 
> dc.rights: As a publicly supported institution, the
Library [of
> Congress] generally does not own rights in its
collections. Therefore,
> it does not charge permission fees for use of such
material and
> generally does not grant or deny permission to publish
or otherwise
> distribute material in its collections.
> 
> dc.rights.uri:
> http
://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html#copyright            
    
> 
> dc.source: Library of Congress Metadata Object
Description Schema
> (MODS) mapped to Indica et Buddhica Dublin Core
Metadata Element
> Set                  
> 
> dc.source.uri: z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager 
> 
> *****        
> 
> Despite the above, I was wondering if any readers you
know whether I
> would need to obtain special permission to use Library
of Congress
> records in this way, and if I would be allowed to
redistribute modified
> versions of such records?
> 
> 
> I would be grateful for any comments or assistance.
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
>  Richard Mahoney
> 
> 

-- 
Sebastian Hammer, Index Data
quinnindexdata.com   www.indexdata.com
Ph: (603) 209-6853 Fax: (866) 383-4485

_______________________________________________
Yazlist mailing list
Yazlistlists.indexdata.dk
http://lists.indexdata.dk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/yaz
list

Hi Sebastian and Laurence

On Mon, 2006-12-04 at 07:21, Sebastian Hammer wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a pound of salt,
but in general, 
> intellectual content produced by the US federal
government (and I would 
> take this to definitely include bibliographic metadata
produced by the 
> Library of Congress)  is not protected by copyright --
it is in the 
> public domain. There are exceptions, such as when the
content is 
> produced by private contractors who don't hand over the
copyright to the 
> government, but I have never heard that this applies in
the case of the 
> LoC catalog. Lots of commercial and not-for-profit
entities do 
> interesting and wonderful stuff with the LoC metadata.
> 
> Other resources, in paticular private ones, may very
well restrict usage 
>   of the metadata.. if that is done, such restrictions
should be made 
> clear in the records themselves, or in the agreement
you make with the 
> operator prior to using it.

I'd like to thank both of you for your comments, they are
very helpful.

I've just gone through the LOC site once again and have
found a little
more material tending to confirm your understanding.

In addition to the statement about the LOC not generally
owning rights
in its collections here:

1./ About Copyright and the Collections:

http://www.loc
.gov/homepage/legal.html

``Whenever possible, the Library of Congress provides
factual
information about copyright owners and related matters in
the catalog
records, finding aids and other texts that accompany
collections. As a
publicly supported institution, the Library generally does
not own
rights in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge
permission
fees for use of such material and generally does not grant
or deny
permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in
its
collections. Permission and possible fees may be required
from the
copyright owner independently of the Library. It is the
researcher's
obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use
restrictions
when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in
the
Library's collections. Transmission or reproduction of
protected items
beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written
permission of the
copyright owners. Researchers must make their own
assessments of rights
in light of their intended use.''


There is a more specific statement about the public domain
status of
work created by federal govt employees here:

2./ When can I assume that there is no copyright protection
for a work?:

http://memor
y.loc.gov/learn/start/cpyrt/

``Work created by employees of the federal government as a
part of their
job is in the public domain, i.e., not protected by
copyright. This is
why you may use American Life Histories: Manuscripts from
the Federal
Writers' Project, 1936-1940, materials in American Memory
without being
concerned with infringing on someone's copyright (other
legal concerns
may be raised in the Restriction Statements). Remember to
credit your
sources, even for government materials.''



Best regards,

 Richard MAHONEY


-- 
Richard MAHONEY | internet: http://indica-et-buddh
ica.org/
Littledene      | telephone/telefax (man.): +64 3 312 1699
Bay Road        | cellular: +64 27 482 9986
OXFORD, NZ      | email: r.mahoneyindica-et-buddhica.org
-----------------------------------------------------------
Philologica: http://ind
ica-et-buddhica.org/philologica/
Repositorium: http://in
dica-et-buddhica.org/repositorium/


_______________________________________________
Yazlist mailing list
Yazlistlists.indexdata.dk
http://lists.indexdata.dk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/yaz
list