Also don't forget that versions of the Dewey Decimal System published in 1925 and earlier are are now in the public domain, for example https://archive.org/details/deweydecimal11dewe (enjoy the spelling!)

Eric

> On Apr 23, 2021, at 1:37 PM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> There are three (at least!) different issues:
> 1. use of DDC to classify your library
> 2. use of the name "Dewey" for the classification without giving the trademark. That was the issue for the Library Hotel [1] and probably for the issue below. OCLC has trademarked the word "Dewey" [2] in relation to the classification as well as "Dewey Decimal Classification".[3]
> 3. the copyrighted text of the DDC, owned by OCLC
> 
> Note that the DDC text was copyrighted from the first edition, and for much of its life the editions were copyrighted by Forest Press. Those rights were most likely all transferred to OCLC.
> 
> kc
> [1] http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/2/OCC/2010/05/07/H1273247357646/viewer/file581.htm
> [2] https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:akl2xm.2.37
> [3] https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:akl2xm.2.39
> 
> 
> On 4/14/21 7:49 AM, Guy Dobson wrote:
>> Approx 20 years ago I put together a website in which I cataloged websites
>> and classified them via both DDC and LC. If you want to browse books about
>> music just go to the 780s so why not organize URLs so that you can do the
>> same with them? I called it Surf with Dewey and got a gig talking about it
>> at PLA. I got a call from a woman at Forest Press informing me that I was
>> violating their copyright because my website listed Dewey numbers, along
>> with their descriptions, beyond the decimal point. Note that if you look
>> DDC up in Wikipedia it doesn't describe any numbers beyond the decimal
>> point. I was also told that I could not map Dewey to LC. I had to remove
>> the descriptions (no big deal: the titles of the websites provided a good
>> substitute) and was told that I had to put the copyright symbol next to the
>> word "Dewey" in my website's title and include a statement re the fact that
>> Forest Press owns the DDC. I changed the name of the website to Surf with
>> BCCLS.
>> *Guy Dobson*
>> Director of Technical Services & Systems Librarian
>> Drew University Library
>> <http://www.drew.edu/library?utm_source=FIL_Email_Footer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FIL%2BEmail%2BFooter>
>> 36 Madison Ave, Madison, NJ 07940
>> (973) 408-3207
>> On Wed, Apr 14, 2021 at 10:29 AM Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>> A couple quick thoughts:
>>> 
>>>    - DDC isn't a structure in the same way that those other things are. DDC
>>>    defines a conceptual universe (portions of which are regularly
>>> redefined)
>>>    as well as ways of navigating it. In this sense, the navigation has
>>> more in
>>>    common with menuing and the content has more in common with something
>>> like
>>>    an index or thesaurus
>>>    - DDC is owned by a giant library cooperative, so it makes more sense
>>>    for the libraries to simply make it publicly available than to look for
>>>    legal/technical loopholes to do the same. However, I've never been able
>>> to
>>>    tell that stuff libraries own (particularly tools) is any more more open
>>>    than stuff they don't.
>>>    - DDC doesn't exist as a format per se, certainly not MARC which is
>>>    simply a container developed to ship info around on tape more than a
>>> half
>>>    century ago.
>>> 
>>> kyle
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Apr 14, 2021 at 12:07 AM Jakob Voß <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> A colleauge of mine just pointed me to a detail of the court decision in
>>>> the case Google vs. Oracle. The Suppreme Court of the United States
>>>> ruled that reimplementation of Java API is no copyright violation but
>>>> allowed at least under fair use:
>>>> 
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc.
>>>> 
>>>> The opinion of the Court contains a remarkable section on page 6:
>>>> 
>>>> https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf
>>>> 
>>>> "The second, less obvious, function is to reflect the way in
>>>> which Java’s creators have divided the potential world of
>>>> different tasks into an actual world, i.e., precisely which set
>>>> of potentially millions of different tasks we want to have
>>>> our Java-based computer systems perform and how we
>>>> want those tasks arranged and grouped. In this sense, the
>>>> declaring code performs an organizational function. It determines the
>>>> structure of the task library that Java’s creators have decided to
>>>> build. To understand this organizational system, think of the Dewey
>>>> Decimal System that categorizes books into an accessible system or a
>>>> travel guide that arranges a city’s attractions into different
>>> categories"
>>>> 
>>>> Following this argument the Dewey Decimal System can be used as free as
>>>> the Java API. I think that we (library developers) already assumed for
>>>> specification of data formats, ontologies and data models but it also
>>>> applies to other kinds of knowledge organization systems (classification
>>>> schemes, thesauri, gazetteers...) including DDC. By the way if you know
>>>> systems not covered in BARTOC.org yet, please let the editors know so we
>>>> will add them!
>>>> 
>>>> I doubt that we can share the raw MARC data of DDC with all of its
>>>> details, but the class hierarchy, notations and headings (without
>>>> limitation of depth!) can be used freely as far as I understand the
>>>> court. Or am I missing something?
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Jakob
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> Jakob Voß <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Verbundzentrale des GBV (VZG) / Common Library Network
>>>> Platz der Goettinger Sieben 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
>>>> +49 (0)551 39-31031, http://www.gbv.de/
>>>> 
>>> 
> 
> -- 
> Karen Coyle
> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
> m: +1-510-435-8234
> skype: kcoylenet/+1-510-984-3600