RE: [dvd-discuss] 120 years and still not in the public domain

["Richard Hartman" <hartman(at)onetouch.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy Erwin [mailto:jerwin@ponymail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 10:07 AM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] 120 years and still not in the 
> public domain
...
> Some libraries do have an interest in maintaining a national 
> standard. 
> If all the libraries subscribing to a interlibrary loan program know 
> that a particular book is filed under 323.156, book lending among 
> libraries is more efficient. But if Library A has been 
> subscribing to a 
> OCLC list, and library B is using another classification 
> service, then 
> the book might just be filed under 401.342. Hence, the OCLC and its 
> subscribing institutions have some interest in ensuring that 
> the Dewey 
> Classification system does not become generic.

Even if I grant that there is an interest in maintaining
a _proprietary_ national standard (as opposed to an open
standard) I do not see how the use of the numbering scheme 
by a hotel for it's room numbers conflicts in any way with 
that end as applied to libraries' efforts to classify books.

-- 
-Richard M. Hartman
hartman@onetouch.com

186,000 mi/sec: not just a good idea, it's the LAW!