Cataloging services provider SkyRiver Technology Solutions, US, has announced that it has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in San Francisco against library cooperative Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), US. The suit alleges that OCLC, a purported non-profit with a membership of 72,000 libraries worldwide, is unlawfully monopolising the markets for cataloging services, interlibrary lending and bibliographic data. It further says OCLC is attempting to monopolise the market for integrated library systems by anticompetitive and exclusionary practices. According to SkyRiver, the suit could have far-reaching implications for competition in the library software and technology services industry.
OCLC, formed in 1967, seeks to further access to the world's information and reducing library costs. But over the years, it has evolved into a global enterprise that sells numerous commercial products and services to libraries, SkyRiver alleges. OCLC is claimed to be generating revenues in excess of $200 million annually from 2005 through 2008, tax-free profits averaging over $17 million per year, and amassing a securities portfolio as high as $176 million in 2007. Since 1982 OCLC has used its tax-free profits to acquire 14 for-profit companies, SkyRiver further points out.
SkyRiver is joined in the lawsuit by Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library automation company. The suit also seeks to address OCLC's anticompetitive behaviour in the integrated library systems market.
SkyRiver was launched in October 2009 in a purported bid to provide a high quality, low cost alternative to OCLC cataloging, potentially allowing customers to achieve savings of up to 40%. The complaint details how public sector SkyRiver customers, like Michigan State University and California State University, turned to SkyRiver to achieve cost savings, only to have OCLC quote them a price increase of over 1,100% to upload their holdings to OCLC's WorldCat database for the benefit of other interlibrary loan (ILL) users.
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