Hi, Well, at the origin, crystallography databases were more academic than commercial. Now they may be considered as more commercial than academic. This leads to new considerations, since they are in monopolistic positions. Let us observe how that monopoly could be broken down on the world market. In the hypothesis that CSD and ICSD just copy the atomic coordinates in scientific literature for free in order to build their databases. In the hypothesis that libraries in Chinese Universities have subscribed to the main international journals. In the hypothesis that 100 laboratories in China pay for the PDF-2, the CSD, the ICSD and the CRYSTMET databases (or would have to pay for them, if they could). And that hypothesis may be under of truth, just look at the picture showing the number of participant the to recent Kunming International workshop at : http://sdpd.univ-lemans.fr/kunming/kungroup.jpg http://sdpd.univ-lemans.fr/kunming/index.html Estimating the cost for 10 years for 100 laboratories buying only PDF-2, approximately : initial investment : 6000x100 = 600000 US$ each year update : 1000x9x100=900000 US$ (add a bit more for having ICSD, CSD and CRYSTMET too). Well, 1.500.000 US$ may suffice for reconstituting the PDF-2, CSD, ICSD, CRYSTMET, all of them, in China, or in India, maybe. What do you think ?:-). Best, Armel Le Bail - Universite du Maine, Laboratoire des Fluorures, CNRS ESA 6010, Av. O. Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France http://www.cristal.org/
