According
to FBO.gov
(short for FedBizOpps.gov, which in turn naturally stands for Federal Business
Opportunities), the U.S. Copyright Office has issued a request for information about
digitizing pre-1978 works.
The RFI
explains that the Copyright Office “has initiated a project to digitize and
make available online the historical records of copyrights dating from 1870 to
1977” and in the future expects to put out a request for proposals “to select
one or more organizations with the skills, experience and equipment to support
the capture of information through crowd sourcing.” In the meantime, this initial RFI is “to determine the scope
and extent of services available in the marketplace to accomplish the crowd
sourcing effort.”
The
information does not appear to be available yet on the Copyright Office’s website
or FederalRegister.gov.
The RFI
explains just how many works would be made available to the public through this
initiative: “The pre-1978 records
in the Copyright Office reflect approximately 16.4 million original and renewal
registrations dating back to 1870, and approximately 350,000 assignments,
transfers and terminations of copyright ownership involving 1.7 million titles.”
It is
exciting to see the Copyright Office embracing the concept of “crowd sourcing”
by capable private entities, especially after there had been so much
controversy around the Google Books settlement, even given all of the public
benefit of that undertaking. CCIA
has in the past supported Google’s initiatives in that project at
home and abroad.
The
response date for this initial RFI is set for two weeks from now—May 15, 2012. Please see: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=182eedb3817215f04f20be9a8a891e4c
for more information and to get involved.
