This are simple and complex answers to this. A group of us in the Open
Knowledge Foundation and Science Commons are actively discussing this. By
default the precise legal situation is complex and varies between
jurisdictions - Europe specifically has a database copyright (sui generis)
which allows database creators to assert copyright over the whole and
significant parts of the whole. The argument that data cannot be copyrighted
is partially correct (depends on jurisdiction) and in practice is often
unworkable. However effective practice can be very simple...
If the intention is to allow Open (libre) use of eMolecules then this is
excellent news and can be asserted most easily by adding an OKF Open Data
button either to the collection or to each entry. That would allow users to
download as many entries as they wished and re-use them. Users would need to
acknowledge where they came from, and should abide by reasonable Community
Norms - e.g. polite crawling of the site, etc.
See: http://opendefinition.org/buttons/
the group is working towards a Community Norm that will honour the simple
placing of the button as an effective statement of intent and expected
practice.
P.
On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 6:56 PM, Soaring Bear <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --- On Wed, 5/20/09, Craig James <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > A molecule can be patented, and its drawing
> > (the 2D coordinates) may be subject to copyright.
>
> this is legal grey area; case law allows the drawing itself since it is not
> creative; words about it are copyrighted whereas ideas aren't
>
> > Anyone can "erase" copyrights by simply running the
> > molecules through his/her favorite 2D depictor such as
> > OpenBable's --gen2D option. But the patents, if any,
> > won't go away.
>
> there is a time limit on patents and some gene patents are being disallowed
>
>
>
>
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--
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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