Armel, do you agree with the IUCr recommendation in the letter you cited that rich countries and individuals like you and me should pay a little more for databases and journals so that developing countries might pay less ? I do.
I do not. This is not "little" more.
Even in rich countries, Individuals cannot pay (at academic costs) 6090 US$ for PDF-4/Organics (and 2800 US$ for yearly renewal) + 3785 US$ for PDF-4/Full File and 720US$ for yearly renewal (or 4920 USD for PDF-2, with a yearly renewal of 875 US$). In that case, "full" does not mean full.
The sentence I prefer, and with which I agree in that IUCr letter is :
"The fact that the IUCr makes CIF files available
to some organizations who distribute the data to the industrial community at a significant profit makes it especially difficult to justify withholding the data
from organizations that would distribute the data free
of charge to users in disadvantaged countries."
Yes, this is especially difficult to justify. If the only car manufacturer was Bentley, few people would have one. But, there would be one at ILL and ESRF, for sure.
I personally have a subscription to the journals J. Appl. Cryst. And Powder Diffraction, because my university library has not. We have PDF-2 in the lab, but not yet PDF-4/organics, though we need it because organometallic samples are produced. Do you suggest me to buy it personnally ?
ILL-ESRF pay the full site licence for the "monopolistic" ICSD, while some laboratories in rich countries apparently allow single-user PC licences, obtained at reduced cost under the IUCr agreement, to be used by all.
You focuse on the monopolistic ICSD (and the quotes on monopolistic are not necessary, it is monopolistic as well as CSD, and ICDD) I am concerned with all databases. ICSD is a small part of all the crystallography databases absolutely necessary in an interdisciplinary and general chemistry lab. I never heard of any reduced cost under the IUCr agreement for the ICDD products. A 90% reduction would be fine on ICDD various PDF-4, if IUCr can obtain such a reduction (including for rich countries and individuals), that would be a beginning.
Armel
