Problems with OCLC Policy on WorldCat Records

If you have not yet heard, OCLC has made some people in the library community really upset with their revised “Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records.”  This drama has been going on for two months now, even rubbing enough people the wrong way to appear as an American Libraries news article.  One major problem is that the policy's development was not open or transparent, immediately drawing much attention to the resulting policy.  The main two complaints about the policy itself are that a "reasonable use" clause in the policy is interpreted by most as unfairly and unreasonably restricting members' rights to use records including those that are self-created.  There is also a new recommended (but not yet firmly policy) WorldCat Record Use Form which is another impediment to open record use.  OCLC has created two revisions of the policy at this point, which are outlined in detail on a Code4Lib wiki page.

The Code4Lib wiki page also includes links to a petition asking OCLC to repeal the policy and a second, and separate, more specific and in-depth petition asking OCLC to vacate the policy and start anew with more openess and other requests.  I stand in solidarity with the petition-writers, with the many bloggers who have spoken out against this (who are listed on the Code4Lib wiki page) in asking OCLC to rethink its policy and policy process

UPDATE: OCLC is delaying this decision pending a review.  Read more in the American Libraries story.