Will Johnson wrote:
Maybe a reader familiar with this SciFinder could
explain what it is
exactly and why it may or may not violate the CAS database.
See [[Chemical Abstracts Service#SciFinder]]. See also
[[Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry/CAS validation]],
which is where all this started.
I've never used it, but extrapolating from what I've read about
it, it's a tool for accessing the CAS database of chemical
compounds. You can access by name, by chemical formula, by CAS
number, and (most useful for chemists) by graphical shape or
structure of the chemical.
When you buy/license it, you are specifically asked to agree
not to use it as an aid to creating another database -- which,
it must be said, is what it sounds like some of the folks at
[[Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry/CAS validation]] are
doing.
That is, the intended uses all involve looking up the chemicals
you're working with (or are thinking of working with) so that
you can be sure you're looking in the right place (i.e. under an
unambiguous name) for anyone else's work with the same chemicals.
What you're not supposed to do is use the tool to look up every
chemical in the CAS database, extract the reference information
there, and compile your own database with that data.