If Zotero is slurping up these Endnote-created .ens files without users
even knowing about it, that would be one thing.
But if .ens files can be created by many people, and if users can use
Zotero to import any of these .ens files, and if users _choose_ to use
Zotero to import Endnote-created .ens files, in violation of their
EndNotes licesnes... that might be a license violation and a legal
culpability on the users part, but is there any legal culpability on
Zotero's part?
EndNote, according to that Press Release, is claiming that Zotero is not
allowed to import _any_ .ens files, that importing .ens files violates
EndNote's intellectual property because nobody else is allowed to parse
the file format. Now, as I understand it, there is absolutely no legal
prohibition on reverse engineering anything---the thing may be protected
by patent or copyright and you may not be able to use it even if you do
reverse engineer it. But there's nothing illegal about reverse
engineering it. Unless perhaps you've signed a contract saying you
wouldn't (did George Mason? Perhaps, if they have an EndNote license).
I hope George Mason U is willing to stand up for Zotero. It's popular
enough that hopefully they will. None of these legal issues are clear,
but EndNote certainly isn't _obviously_ in the right, and my guess would
be they would not win any lawsuit. But with most of our employers,
historically, being able to _win_ a lawsuit isn't needed to get our
employers to back down, the threat alone is sufficient.
Jonathan
Peter Murray wrote:
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On Sep 28, 2008, at 8:58 PM, Reese, Terry wrote:
This seems like a real grey area. I can see Thomson Scientific
putting up a fuss when using ENS files generated by the creator of
EndNote. But ENS files can -- and have -- be created by just about
anyone (librarians, journal publishers, researchers) and published on
the open web.
(As the original author of the quoted section above, please replace
"can -- and have -- be created" with "can -- and have -- been created".)
I'm not sure that's what they are saying. Endnote does come with ens
files that they create (I believe, that was the case the last time I
looked at the software), managed and provided as part of their
application. They certainly can claim rights to those (this isn't
really a gray area) -- and unless the Zotero software is able to
determine user generated files from files distributed as part of the
Endnote application, then it could be problematic.
Agreed -- if Thomson Scientific created the ENS style file in
question, then it is their intellectual property and there are
probably grounds for the lawsuit.
The version of EndNote I have (circa 2005) came with a couple dozen
styles, and as of now Thomson Scientific has 3,500 up on their EndNote
Styles website. Even these may not be created by Thomson Scientific
itself -- the notes in the Zotero enhancement ticket mention that some
of the styles might be user-contributed. A quick perusal of the
Zotero code that decodes the ENS file
(https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/extension/trunk/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/enstyle.js?rev=2908#L112)
would seem to show that there is nothing in the ENS file that points
to who created the style. If there was some way to exclude EndNote
style files created Thomson Scientific, then Zotero would probably be
okay.
But, then again, I'm not a lawyer...
Peter
- --
Peter Murray http://www.pandc.org/peter/work/
Assistant Director, New Service Development tel:+1-614-728-3600;ext=338
OhioLINK: the Ohio Library and Information Network Columbus, Ohio
The Disruptive Library Technology Jester http://dltj.org/
Attrib-Noncomm-Share http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
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--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
