It appears that VIAF is transitioning to being an OCLC service.
"The new Agreement confirms the free re-use of VIAF data, including
the commercial re-use of data according to the ODC-By license." says
Bruno Racine, President, National Library of France.

The news announcement: http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/2012/201224.htm

On 30 March 2012 23:54, Tom Morris <[email protected]> wrote:
> I found an explicit non-commercial statement:
> http://www.oclc.org/developer/services/viaf
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 3:38 AM, Karen Coyle <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Tom,  (or others)
>>
>> All I can find on the VIAF site regarding API access is the content
>> negotiation for requested URLs. Does anyone have experience with sending
>> a string query to VIAF and getting results?
>
> The API is documented here:
> http://www.oclc.org/developer/documentation/virtual-international-authority-file-viaf/request-types
>
> It's straightforward to work with.
>
>> I ask this because when we
>> made a request for the FAST file from OCLC (which is now available) a
>> first reply was that the online service should serve most needs. I'm
>> wondering what the case is for a dump vs. using VIAF online.
>
> There are two reasons to ask for a dump that you can use on
> OpenLibrary under CC0:
>
> 1. It forces them to clarify the license terms if you specify you want
> it under CC0
> 2. API providers generally prefer that you don't use the API for bulk access.
>
> Tom
>
>>
>> And as to FAST, there should be a high level of linking from the FAST
>> subject file to OL subjects.
>> http://www.oclc.org/developer/services/fast-linked-data-api
>>
>> kc
>>
>>
>> On 3/29/12 5:56 PM, Tom Morris wrote:
>>> I figured I'd pull this out into it's own thread.  Although I assume
>>> that VIAF is non-commercial licensed because it's hosted on a site
>>> carrying the OCLC Research license with it's non-commercial
>>> stipulation, the OCLC has been maddeningly opaque about what the
>>> actual license is.  They've made the assertion in various informal
>>> settings that it's freely available, but then always add caveats.
>>>
>>> In 2010, they said licensing would be clarified in the "next few months."
>>> https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/nyt_linked_open_data/RuoAJ249Wi4
>>>
>>> A year ago, they said there were "no restrictions on use" but then
>>> added that prior approval was needed to get access to dumps.  They
>>> also mentioned potentially moving to Open Data Commons ODC-By or
>>> ODC-ODbL.
>>> http://outgoing.typepad.com/outgoing/2011/03/use-of-viaf.html
>>>
>>> In neither case have they actually changed the licensing on the site
>>> and they haven't publicly responded to queries about why the dumps
>>> can't be made available for download if the data really is freely
>>> available.
>>>
>>> Perhaps OpenLibrary should make a formal request for access to the
>>> dumps to use under a CC0 or ODBL license?
>>>
>>> Tom
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> [email protected]
>>
>> --
>> Karen Coyle
>> [email protected] http://kcoyle.net
>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>> skype: kcoylenet
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