The copyrights to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system are owned by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), which is a nonprofit organization based in Dublin, Ohio. OCLC is an international consortium of libraries that provides a range of services and resources to libraries and their users, including the DDC system.
OCLC has owned the copyrights to the DDC system since 1988, when it acquired the rights from the American Library Association (ALA), which had previously been the copyright holder for the DDC system. OCLC is responsible for maintaining and updating the DDC system, and it publishes both print and digital versions of the classification system. The digital version of the DDC system, known as Web Dewey or E-DDC, is available online and is used by libraries and researchers around the world to classify and organize materials according to subject matter.