Socialized medicine?  Sure.  *We* have authority files!

-t

On Tue, 23 Sep 2008, David Fiander wrote:

> One of the most important pages in the print volumes of the Library of
> Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), is the title page verso, which
> includes publication and copyright details. The folks at LC very
> clearly understand US copyright law, since on that page you can see
> that they claim that the LCSH is copyright LC _outside of the United
> States of America_.
>
> The same probably holds true for the copyright claim on the name
> authority files. You folks in the United States can do what you will
> with impunity, but us unwashed masses beyond your shores are likely to
> get in trouble. Probably the next time we attempt to cross the border.
>
> - David
>
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 5:21 PM, Jason Griffey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> As I mentioned, they are available from Ibiblio on the link above. The
>> copyright claim is...well...specious at best. But no one really wants
>> to be the one to go to court and prove it. They've been publicly
>> available for more than a year now on the Fred 2.0 site, and they
>> haven't been sued, to my knowledge.
>>
>> Jason
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 5:17 PM, Nate Vack <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Bryan Baldus
>>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> One way (as you likely know) (official, expensive) is via The Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service:
>>>
>>> Huh. They claim copyright of these records. I'd somehow thought:
>>>
>>> 1: The federal government can't hold copyrights
>>>
>>> 2: As purely factual data, catalog records are conceptually uncopyrightable
>>>
>>> Anyone who knows more about this than I do know if they're *really*
>>> copyrighted, or if it's more of a "we're gonna try and say they're
>>> copyrighted and hope no one ignores us"?
>>>
>>> Curious,
>>> -Nate
>>>
>>
>