On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 5:25 AM, Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com wrote:
On 10/03/2008, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
There also seems to be a free look-up independent of ACS (http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/cas-ser.html). That said, this page is footed with "CAS registry numbers are copyrighted by the American Chemical Society. Redistribution rights for CAS registry numbers are reserved by the American Chemical Society. "CAS registry" is a registered trademark of the American Chemical society.".
"Redistribution rights" is probably the key phrase here - without explicitly saying so, that seems to be the same sort of restriction as SciFinder places on the user. It just makes the lookup process no-charge...
Whether or not there is copyright, they are using contract law to protect their IP.
SciFinder License Agreement:
"...I acknowledge that I am permitted to: * Search only for myself and not for others or other origanizations. * Use only the LoginID and password assigned to me and not share these with any other person. * Store up to 5,000 Records and any one time. * Contribute my 5,000 Records into a Project Database for use by my Project team for the duration of the project. ..."
More information at:
http://www.cas.org/legal/infopolicy.html
-- John