Lars Aronsson wrote:
For Wikicat, perhaps it could be based on Wikidata or perhaps on
some other technical solution, but it also needs contents, and this contents needs to be free (as in freedom). The dump of the database must be possible to download and reuse for other purposes. My point is that we currently don't have that kind of content. What's lacking is not so much the technical platform, as the contents. The most recent proposal ([[m:Wikicat]]) by Jleybov is based on lifting catalog records from the Library of Congress and other major libraries through a Z39.50 interface. I don't see any contract with the LoC and other libraries that confirms that these data can be reused for any purpose, and I don't see any efforts being made to getting such contracts. Instead, on the m:talk:Wikicat page, I see vague ideas about using data that are available for educational non-profit purposes, and I personally think that is quite insufficient. I don't think it is impossible to solve the licensing issue, but I think it needs to be solved. Just ignoring the legal issue is not good enough.
I don't see where copyright is an issue with this. The Library of Congress is an arm of the United States Congress whose primary purpose is to serve U. S. legislators. That would put its work in the public domain. Is there any reason to believe otherwise? Other libraries may have different views concerning their material, but how much of their material is not in the LoC catalogue.
Ec