SkyRiver continues complaint against OCLC

Lawyers for SkyRiver Technology Solutions, LLC have filed its opposition to OCLC's motion to dismiss its complaint. SkyRiver's complaint alleges that OCLC has engaged in predatory and exclusionary business practices in violation of federal and state antitrust laws.

'OCLC's motion to dismiss that was filed in December misrepresented the antitrust claims made in the original complaint and our February 4th filing sets the record straight,' commented SkyRiver president Leslie Straus. 'We are seeking a level playing field for the development and marketing of products for libraries and an end to the anti-competitive behaviour by OCLC that punishes its own members.'

Straus explained the reasons behind the company's complaint: 'Non-member libraries around the world have loaded millions of records into OCLC's WorldCat at minimal or no cost, while legacy OCLC members such as Michigan State University and California State University Long Beach are being asked to pay outrageous batchloading fees - simply because they decided to choose SkyRiver for their cataloging services.'

According to the latest filing from SkyRiver: 'OCLC fails to address (other than to deny) Plaintiffs' allegations of anticompetitive and exclusionary membership terms, policies and practices that have been imposed on its member libraries for years. OCLC also mischaracterises its unlawful punitive pricing and tying arrangements.'

The filing goes on to say, 'Since at least 1987, OCLC has demanded that its member libraries agree to terms of membership that prohibit sharing the metadata of their own library holdings contributed to OCLC's bibliographic database known as WorldCat with any for-profit firms for commercial use and require member libraries to use OCLC's services. OCLC has imposed these membership terms to prevent the development of competing bibliographic databases, cataloging services or ILL services by erecting barriers to entry in these three markets.'

SkyRiver and co-plaintiff, Innovative Interfaces, also claim that OCLC is using its monopoly power illegally in these three markets in its attempt to monopolise the ILS market.