On 12/13/06, Tim Spalding <tim <at> librarything.com > wrote:

If the library world is looking for a simple open-source project,
setting up a big cover database would be tops on my list.

Amazon, Syndetics and so forth don't "own" the covers they provide.
They just did the work of getting them—99% from publishers—and since
they provide them, they can put them under a license if they want.*

All someone needs to do is set up a website, accept covers that come
in and particularly, make it easy to get feeds from publishers.
Publishers are eager to help. LibraryThing, for example, was granted
access to covers of all the Random House and much of Harper Collins,
without going to much trouble over it. Publishers want their data out
there, and are indeed annoyed that others resell what they made.

creative commons type license. With the buy in from the publishers of course.
And if we did it, such that it was general enough (the application that is not the content) such that it could be used by others for other purposes. It would perhaps be a useful Open Source project.

I reckon with ruby on rails something could be whacked up pretty fast to do what you describe. If I didnt have a 3 week old son and more work than you can shake a stick at. Id certainly volunteer. Its a great idea, open content is as least as important as open source.

Chris