Scifinder is one of their two interfaces--in the variant Scifinder
Scholar, its the one almost universally used for academic purposes.
The actual database being search is usually the various files of
Chemical Abstracts--in this particular case, File Registry, which has
the chemical information. There are also files of bibliographic
information. In the print version, file Registry corresponds to the
chemical Structure Index.
CAS is noted for its aggressive claims of intellectual property. They
try to win by bullying. There is no reason to assume that everything
they claim is valid,any more than for anyone else who purports to own
intellectual property. For a good full discussion of this , see
[
http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/acs_pubchem.html] from the
University of California.
But there is no doubt that a/they do have the intellectual property
for File Registry, and b/that the contract limitation for their
electronic interfaces are valid licensing restriction. As I mentioned,
there is no licensing restriction on the print, just the copyright.
The question comes down to fair use. But it is unfortunately
thoroughly accepted in US copyright law that a contract can supersede
the statutory fair use permissions. This is not necessarily the case
in all countries.
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 2:11 PM, Steve Summit <scs(a)eskimo.com> wrote:
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.
_______________________________________________
WikiEN-l mailing list
WikiEN-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
--
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG