The Open Content Alliance (OCA) is a consortium of organizations contributing to a permanent, publicly accessible archive of digitized texts. Its creation was announced in October 2005 by Yahoo!, the Internet Archive, the University of California, the University of Toronto and others ^[1]. Scanning for the Open Content Alliance is administered by the Internet Archive, which also provides permanent storage and access through its website.

The OCA is, in part, a response to Google Book Search, which was announced in October 2004. OCA's approach to seeking permission from copyright holders differs significantly from that of Google Book Search. OCA digitizes copyrighted works only after asking and receiving permission from the copyright holder ("opt-in"). By contrast, Google Book Search digitizes copyrighted works unless explicitly told not to do so ("opt-out"), and contends that digitizing for the purposes of indexing is fair use.

Microsoft had a special relationship with the Open Content Alliance until May 2008. Microsoft joined the Open Content Alliance in October 2005 as part of its Live Book Search project ^[2]. However, in May 2008 Microsoft announced it would be ending the Live Book Search project and no longer funding the scanning of books through the Internet Archive.^[3] Microsoft removed any contractual restrictions on the content they had scanned and they relinquished the scanning equipment to their digitization partners and libraries to continue digitization programs.^[3] Between about 2006 and 2008 Microsoft sponsored the scanning of over 750,000 books, 300,000 of which are now part of the Internet Archive's on-line collections.

[edit] Opposition to Google Book Settlement

Brewster Kahle the founder of the Open Content Alliance, has been very active in oppostition to the proposed Google Book Settlement. Saying, "Lets free the orphans, not have them pass from their legal limbo into a life controlled by Google" [sic]^[4]. The Open Content Alliance is a Member of the Open Book Alliance.^[5]

[edit] Contributors

The following are contributors to the OCA:

Adobe Systems Incorporated Boston Library Consortium The Bancroft Library The British Library Columbia University Libraries Emory University Library European Archive Getty Research Institute HP Labs Indiana University Libraries Internet Archive Johns Hopkins University Libraries McMaster University Memorial University of Newfoundland Missouri Botanical Garden

MSN The National Archives National Writers Union[6] Natural History Museum, London National Library of Australia O'Reilly Media Perseus Project Prelinger Library and Prelinger Archives Research Libraries Group Rice University Libraries San Francisco Public Library Simon Fraser University Library Smithsonian Institution Libraries Universided Francisco Marroquin, Guatemala University of Alberta Libraries University of British Columbia Library

University of California Libraries University of Chicago University of Georgia University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Ottawa University of Pittsburgh University of Texas University of Toronto University of Virginia Library Washington University William and Flora Hewitt Foundation Xerox Corporation Yahoo! York University Library

Biodiversity Heritage Library, a cooperative project of:

• American Museum of Natural History
• Harvard University Botany Libraries
• Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology
• Missouri Botanical Garden
• Natural History Museum, London
• The New York Botanical Garden
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Smithsonian Institution Libraries

[edit] See also

• Digital library
• Google Book Search
• Internet Archive
• List of digital library projects
• Project Gutenberg
• Universal library
• Open catalogue

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Open Content Alliance Home
• Video from Open Content Alliance Launch, Oct 2005
• The Universal Library (Carnegie Mellon site)
• Google Library Project
• Google Book Search
• Internet Archive Home
• Digitized Content in the Internet Archive from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library

News Articles

• Scan This Book! (May 14, 2006 New York Times)
• Microsoft To Join Book-Search Alliance (October 26, 2005 International Herald Tribune]
• In Challenge to Google, Yahoo Will Scan Books (October 3, 2005 New York Times article)
• Building the Universal Library (May 18, 2006 Search Engine Watch)
• Google's Moon Shot: The quest for the universal library February 5, 2007 article in The New Yorker

Blog Posts

• The Universal Library and Other Book Digitization Projects (Search Engine Watch)
• Yahoo Search announcing Open Content Alliance