copyright ? display of crystal structures from atomiccoordinates

[Steve Ellison]

>>> "Rzepa, Henry" <h.rzepa at 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....




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