June 2000 - chemweb - imperial.ac.uk

copyright and watermark
by Michael Engel 18 Jul '00

18 Jul '00

Hello Thank you very much for your valuable comments on my copyright question. I am certainly on the safe side when I get the OK from the original publisher and/or the author. It looks as if the whole problem is much more complex as I even imagined. Atomic coordinates are probably not the pure data as they seem to be, as we measure intensities of the reflected X-rays and calculate the coordinates from those. So the pure data are the intensities. Despite the understandable need for protecting own data, I find it a little bit doubtful that published data are not the correct data - addition of that watermark mentioned by Frank Oellien. That goes in the wrong direction. That resembles the practice of some people/companies to "not tell everything" in published procedures in patents (and also publications). In my oppinion, published data need to be true and reliable. Otherwise we will come to the situation where we publish an abstract and a sentence like "Send me a cheque and I will send you the real data." (Exaggerated, I hope.) Off course, I do not think that Frank Oellien and his co-workers plan to do so. I understand their intention well. I have also problems understanding why some people (even already famous professors) cheat so much in not making reference to other people's work. It would be interesting if Frank Oellien could add some further comments on that topic, e.g., the the outcome of that thesis, title, URL. This watermark method has been recently discussed and used in published pictures on the internet and I have heard some intentions/tests with text files too (sorry, don't remember where I read it). Does chemical data do get a watermark in the future ? How do we watermark a synthesis ? That's interesting and I hope for some further insights and comments. Regards Michael chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Molecule of the Month - July - Thalidomide
by Paul May 30 Jun '00

30 Jun '00

Hi, July's MOTM is the notorious drug, thalidomide. The pages have been written by one of the undergraduates here at Bristol, and include a nice introductory discussion on various types of isomerism, including the optical isomerism that was responsible for thalidomide's side-effects. It's only available in HTML format, but 3D structure files of most of the molecules on the pages are available via hyperlink. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/Chemistry/MOTM/motm.htm Regards, ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Paul May, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK tel: +44 (0)117 928-9927, fax: +44 (0)117 925-1295 <mailto:paul.may@bris.ac.uk> Home URL: <http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Chemistry/staff/pwm.htm> Molecule of the Month: <http://www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/Chemistry/MOTM/motm.htm> "That's inches away from being millimetre perfect" (Ted Lowe) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Re: copyright ? display of crystal structures from atomiccoordinates
by Steve Ellison 29 Jun '00

29 Jun '00

>>> "Rzepa, Henry" <h.rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk> 29/06/2000 10:33:20 >>> > ...I cannot bring myself to believe that if say Chapman and Hall wish to >produce a Dictionary of Organic Compounds in which they cite >a melting point, they have to seek permission from every original author >of the article which cites it. Neither can I, so there must be something in what you say. But most original authors don't own the copyright - as you should know, they sign it away to the publisher on the copyright transfer form they sign for every paper. The journal publisher usually holds copyright in published work, not the original author. I was sufficiently puzzled by all this that I checked with our copyright person (the librarian), and they looked into it in case it ever bit us. I got this back, quoting from Charles Oppenheim, who our librarian reckons is a copyright guru: "individual facts are not copyright, but collections, such as in spectral lists, enjoy database right and often have copyright as well. The ground rules are quite complex, but a typical spectral collection will enjoy both copyright and database right. This means you can reproduce small insubstantial amounts - a single figure or a very small number of them - without trouble, but anything more and you should obtain a licence. If the material appeared in a journal, you should approach the journal publisher in the first instance. .... basically err on the side of caution.." Hope that helps; it's the nearest I'm going to get to a legal opinion on hte case. Er, can you guys out there please treat the above carefully, as I haven't yet got the man's permission to quote him.... chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Re: copyright ? display of crystal structures from atomiccoordinates - PS
by Steve Ellison 29 Jun '00

29 Jun '00

US-centred folk may want to check out http://www.benedict.com/, which has a good section on 'fair use' for american copyright law. It looks particularly relevant to academic/non-profit work. Needless to say, it is not definitive, but it does give useful guidance on the main issues. chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Re: copyright ? display of crystal structures from atomiccoordinates
by Steve Ellison 29 Jun '00

29 Jun '00

>>> "Rzepa, Henry" <h.rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk> wrote at 29/06/2000 09:14:56 >>> >Whilst no lawyer, I am certain that atomic coordinates are pure data >and not subject to copyright. For example, no-one would claim that >a melting point is copyright. As an employee in a recently privatised government lab with a new intellectual property awareness, I've found otherwise. In most science, Henry's view won;t do you much harm, but in a commercial world it could get your pants sued off. There is no such concept as 'pure data' - there is only a representation of that data, and in general, copyright exists automatically in a representation, irrespective of whether it's got a copyright notice on it. This applies everywhere; remember that legend "reproduced from <reference x> by kind permission of <owner>"? The original - pure data or not - was copyright. And to quote or reproduce it, you must (formally) have asked the copyright owner, usually the publisher. So, rule of thumb: All published material is copyright and you need the copyright owner's permission to reproduce it in any form (including electronically). That applies to a published melting point as much as to the mona lisa. The most important exception affecting ChemWeb is that the copyright in a heck of a lot of resources out there is owned by a university or government grant-awarding body which takes the philanthropic view that the data is acquired under the condition that it be made freely available for research purposes, or even that it will not be subject to copyright restrictions (as in the US under freedom of information laws). The upshot is that most people will be more than happy for you to quote their published results with a citation, though if it's a lot of data, they will be much happier if you ask first. The discussion between Henry and the CC database is typical of that view. The other exception is where you acquire or use a publication with explicit permission to reproduce parts; that's usually in the copyright notice on a book or in software. A final exception: copyright usually has a limited life. Typically in the UK fifty years after the author's death, the copyright expires, though I think additional measures can be taken to extend that. However, material out of copyright is genuinely public domain and anybody's game, and that would probably apply to published statements of well-established fact (like the approximate melting point of water). In short, you can usually get away with modest extracts from scientific publications, but it's because of general custom and practice between scientists (who generally don't get offended by cited extracts, so don't sue you), coupled with explicit permission if necessary. It is never, ever a 'right' while something is in copyright, and published material is always copyright by default. chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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copyright ? display of crystal structures from atomic coordinates
by Michael Engel 29 Jun '00

29 Jun '00

Hello a "copyright" question: Can I display crystal structures using atomic coordinates from publications on my webpage without the consent (but with citation) of the author ? Does it fall under "fair use" (sorry, don't know the exact term) ? What about very old papers (1930-50) ? I would be happy to read your comments about this "problem". Thank you very much. Michael Engel chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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VRML Animation Service
by Frank Oellien 21 Jun '00

21 Jun '00

ChemVis - News Please excuse duplicate postings. ---------------------------------------------------------- We have now released our new VRML-based on-line service 'VRML Animator for Chemical Structures' which is available at http://www2.chemie.uni-erlangen.de/services/vrmlanim/ Features: - Animation of multi-frame 3D exchange formats (yxz) - Display styles: Ball&Stick, Capped, Spacefill - Show Bond Order (Yes/No) - Play/Stop option - No limit of coordinate frames --------------------------------------------------------- For the visualization of simple chemical exchange formats without dynamics, please use our 'VRML File Creator for Chemical Structures' http://www2.chemie.uni-erlangen.de/services/vrmlcreator/ New Features: - Visualization of complex bonds --------------------------------------------------------- Time-dependent molecular orbital visualization (using VRML and Java) We have developed an on-line demo for the visualization of molecular orbitals during chemical reactions. http://www9.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/Persons/Engel/orbitalanimation/ --------------------------------------------------------- Please visit our other VRML tools, too. http://www2.chemie.uni-erlangen.de/ChemVis/projects.html ChemVis Team http://www2.chemie.uni-erlangen/chemvis/ -- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Erlangen-Nuernberg Naegelsbachstrasse 25, D-91052 Erlangen (Germany) Tel (+49)-(0)9131-85-26579 Fax (+49)-(0)9131-85-26566 email: Frank.Oellien(a)chemie.uni-erlangen.de WWW : http://www2.ccc.uni-erlangen.de/oellien/ http://www2.ccc.uni-erlangen.de/ChemVis/ chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Re: WapElements
by Dr Mary Masson 18 Jun '00

18 Jun '00

Dear Mark, I tried your WAP version of WebElements - great idea. Thought you'd like to know about a problem, though. It does not work on the emulator from the link on http://www.webelements.com/wapelements/index.html in Netscape. It does work in IE5. However, if you go to gelon.net in Netscape and enter your wml link, it works fine. Regards Mary ---------------------- Dr Mary Masson Department of Chemistry University of Aberdeen Meston Walk, Aberdeen AB24 3UE Tel. 01224 272931 m.masson(a)abdn.ac.uk chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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WapElements (fwd) - scientific applications of WAP
by L.M.D.Cranswick＠dl.ac.uk 14 Jun '00

14 Jun '00

> For the amusement of those who can afford a WAP phone. > > WapElements > > WWW: http://www.webelements.com/wapelements/index.html > WAP: http://www.webelements.com/wapelements/index.wml > > WapElements is a Wap-based mini version of WebElements, the periodic > table on the WWW. You can run a mobile phone emulator version over > the WWW from the WWW link above. > > If anyone does have a WAP phone I'd be interested to hear if it > actually works, as I don't have one and so don't really know! > > I'll enhance it in the future. > > Regards > -- > Dr Mark J Winter (Director of Studies) > Department of Chemistry, The University, Sheffield S3 7HF, England For those on the go (I too don't have a WAP enabled phone) you can also view the SRS Synchrotron Beam Status via WAP. http://wap.dl.ac.uk - Text http://wap2.dl.ac.uk - graphical and text http://www.gelon.net has a nice WAP emulator The Synchrotron beam is in shutdown mode until July so the WAP pages are static at the moment. A page on how to create WAP enabled content - and background information is at: http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/solution/wap/ At the NOBUGS Conference which finished today - there was also an example of using WAP to remotely monitor experiments at the ILL Neutron facility, in Grenoble, France via WAP phones as part of the G.E.O.R.G.E. system. (at present, mainly for the benefit of beamline staff) http://barns.ill.fr NOBUGS III Page: http://srs.dl.ac.uk/nobugs/nobugs3/ Cheers, Lachlan. -- Lachlan M. D. Cranswick Collaborative Computational Project No 14 (CCP14) for Single Crystal and Powder Diffraction Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, WA4 4AD U.K Tel: +44-1925-603703 Fax: +44-1925-603124 E-mail: l.cranswick(a)dl.ac.uk Ext: 3703 Room C14 http://www.ccp14.ac.uk chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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WapElements
by Mark Winter 14 Jun '00

14 Jun '00

For the amusement of those who can afford a WAP phone. WapElements WWW: http://www.webelements.com/wapelements/index.html WAP: http://www.webelements.com/wapelements/index.wml WapElements is a Wap-based mini version of WebElements, the periodic table on the WWW. You can run a mobile phone emulator version over the WWW from the WWW link above. If anyone does have a WAP phone I'd be interested to hear if it actually works, as I don't have one and so don't really know! I'll enhance it in the future. Regards -- Dr Mark J Winter (Director of Studies) Department of Chemistry, The University, Sheffield S3 7HF, England tel: +44 (0)114 222 9304 fax: +44 (0)114 222 9303 e-m: mark.winter(a)sheffield.ac.uk http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/staff/mjw/mark-winter.html WebElements is the periodic table on the world-wide web: http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/web-elements/ or http://www.webelements.com/ The Sheffield Chemdex is a listing of chemistry sites on the world-wide web: http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/chemdex/ or http://www.chemdex.org/ chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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