OCLC 狀告科睿唯安

圖書館自動化系統市場經過這幾年不斷的整併後，存留下來市佔較高且持續保持競爭力的大型系統廠商就屬 OCLC 及去年購併 ProQuest 的科睿唯安(Clarivate) 了，前者的 WorldShare Management Services 及後者旗下 Ex Libris 的 Alma 為目前市場上主流的 LSP (library services platform)，競爭之激烈可想而知。

這個競爭態勢隨著 Ex Libris 產品線不斷的擴展，終於碰撞出一些火花。Ex Libris 推出的 Open Metadata Platform 的產品：MetaDoor 因鼓勵其用戶自 WorldCat 將書目紀錄貢獻到 MetaDoor，此舉顯然對市場上久居領先地位的 WorldCat 造成相當的壓力。MetaDoor 的做法可能有些爭議，讓 OCLC 在 6月13日對 Clarivate 提起訴訟，下面是轉自 infoDOCKET 的報導，更多資料及雙方的回應都在文末連結。

8. In March 2022, OCLC became aware that Defendants are working on a platform called MetaDoor, which Defendants have publicly acknowledged will directly compete with OCLC’s WorldCat®. Instead of devoting the time and other substantial resources that OCLC has invested to create its industry-leading WorldCat®, Defendants have chosen to take shortcuts by using the MetaDoor platform to misappropriate catalog records and metadata created by OCLC, its members, and others.

9. Defendants have been contacting OCLC customers and encouraging them to contribute the bibliographic records from WorldCat®, and provide access to those records from the MetaDoor platform, all of which is in direct breach of those customers’ contractual obligations to OCLC. In addition to tortiously interfering with OCLC’s contractual relationships with its customers, Defendants are also tortiously interfering with OCLC’s prospective business relationships by providing OCLC’s WorldCat® records to MetaDoor users without requiring those users to subscribe to use WorldCat® or otherwise pay OCLC for those records

10. Defendants have also conspired with each other to tortiously interfere with OCLC’s contractual relationships and prospective business relationships.

11. Defendants have publicly stated that they plan to offer MetaDoor to current and future customers for free, which would include access and use of the WorldCat® bibliographic records that are being uploaded, linked to, and/or otherwise transferred into MetaDoor. Defendants’ actions are not purely altruistic, however. Instead, this is just Defendants’ latest attempt to further consolidate their dominant position in the ILS/LSP market. Defendants are engaging in profit-sacrificing behavior to ultimately drive OCLC (and potentially its other competitors) from the ILS/LSP market. And given the importance of WorldCat® to OCLC’s continued operations, Defendants are likely to succeed unless they are stopped from pursuing their current course of wrongful actions.

12. Defendants know that without being able to steal valuable WorldCat® records, MetaDoor will not survive. MetaDoor’s entire structure is built on the back of WorldCat® and the more than five decades worth of work and hundreds of millions of dollars invested by OCLC to create it.

下面是最近一段介紹 MetaDoor 的影片，有興趣的人可以看看。

延伸閱讀：

1. LJ infoDOCKET－OCLC Files Lawsuit Against Clarivate Analytics
2. CourtListener.com－OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. v. Clarivate, Plc, 2:22-cv-02470
3. OCLC－OCLC files suit against Clarivate PLC and its subsidiaries, Clarivate Analytics, Ex Libris, and ProQuest
4. Clarivate－Clarivate statement on OCLC lawsuit