Hi,

thanks for all the insightful comments, it's a topic I'd love 
to avoid, but I recognize that it needs to be dealt with.

On Thu, 2011-02-24 at 15:07 -0800, richard apodaca wrote:
...
> 1) to pick an open license that will work for the entire site. CC0
> would be my preference:
> http://depth-first.com/articles/2009/11/10/chempedia-data-downloads-free-as-in-free/

On the one hand I really like CC0, because it makes life hassle-free
(especially in mashing up different DBs) and using it will encourage
others to do the same. 

In a not-so-ideal world, a company might download the CC0 
and include it into their MS library, and sell it for $$$. 

Now, this wouldn't be the worst, but likely their customers 
wouldn't bother to contribute their own spectra to MassBank, 
because the spectra they got were possibly quite expensive 
(especially if they have to buy their own data back!). 

In short, I don't mind of the MassBank data is bundled 
with instrument software if they keep it free, 
and if the vendor encourages the customers 
to contribute to that community effort.

> 2) ... 3) ... 4) Internally and externally flag those records openly
> licensed, and only allow bulk download of openly licensed records.

Yes, that was my train of thought. BTW, this would mean two different 
licenses (free and non-free), and would be halfway to microlicensing,
wouldn't it ?

On Thu, 2011-02-24 at 09:51 -0800, Craig James wrote: 
...
> On top of that, you might be able to make the case that by
> contributing in the first place, people were giving their spectra into
> the public domain.  Was there any doubt that the library was intended
> to be widely distributed?

Some of the data was contributed wit the expressed statement 
that they were *not* freely distributable, and we have 
to accept/comply with that.

On Thu, 2011-02-24 at 15:07 -0800, richard apodaca wrote:
...
> It's a tricky area, but the data in your collection may not even be
> covered by copyright laws. No original copyright means no license
> necessary.

I am also uncertain about spectra that were placed 
as supplementary material to some journal articles:
am I free to convert data from a journal to MassBank records ?
Is that related to the question whether *the data* is copyrighted ?

Yours,
Steffen

-- 
IPB Halle                    AG Massenspektrometrie & Bioinformatik
Dr. Steffen Neumann          http://www.IPB-Halle.DE
Weinberg 3                   http://msbi.bic-gh.de
06120 Halle                  Tel. +49 (0) 345 5582 - 1470
                                  +49 (0) 345 5582 - 0
sneumann(at)IPB-Halle.DE     Fax. +49 (0) 345 5582 - 1409


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