Comments on: How Many Electronic Databases Have More Than 10000 CAS Numbers? http://www.chemspider.com/blog/how-many-electronic-databases-have-more-than-10000-cas-numbers.html Building Community for Chemists Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:07:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, Cambridge - petermr’s blog » Blog Archive » Wikipedia has ca 7000 chemical structures http://www.chemspider.com/blog/how-many-electronic-databases-have-more-than-10000-cas-numbers.html/comment-page-1#comment-24370 Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, Cambridge - petermr’s blog » Blog Archive » Wikipedia has ca 7000 chemical structures Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:51:57 +0000 http://www.chemspider.com/blog/?p=121#comment-24370 [...] up CAS numbers online, and, I believe, a number of them containing over 10,000 numbers which, as I have commented before, is rather a magic number. Should Wikipedia be concerned about the 10,000 CAS number issue with [...] [...] up CAS numbers online, and, I believe, a number of them containing over 10,000 numbers which, as I have commented before, is rather a magic number. Should Wikipedia be concerned about the 10,000 CAS number issue with [...]

]]> By: The Curation of Almost 5000 Structures on Wikipedia at The ChemConnector Blog - Observations and Musings for the Chemistry Community http://www.chemspider.com/blog/how-many-electronic-databases-have-more-than-10000-cas-numbers.html/comment-page-1#comment-24342 The Curation of Almost 5000 Structures on Wikipedia at The ChemConnector Blog - Observations and Musings for the Chemistry Community Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:57:41 +0000 http://www.chemspider.com/blog/?p=121#comment-24342 [...] up CAS numbers online, and, I believe, a number of them containing over 10,000 numbers which, as I have commented before, is rather a magic number. Should Wikipedia be concerned about the 10,000 CAS number issue with [...] [...] up CAS numbers online, and, I believe, a number of them containing over 10,000 numbers which, as I have commented before, is rather a magic number. Should Wikipedia be concerned about the 10,000 CAS number issue with [...]

]]> By: Antony Williams http://www.chemspider.com/blog/how-many-electronic-databases-have-more-than-10000-cas-numbers.html/comment-page-1#comment-17930 Antony Williams Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:38:31 +0000 http://www.chemspider.com/blog/?p=121#comment-17930 In a discussion about this issue today with Wikipedia Chemistry I was referred to this reference case. it's a great reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Telephone_Service In a discussion about this issue today with Wikipedia Chemistry I was referred to this reference case. it’s a great reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Telephone_Service

]]> By: Rich Apodaca http://www.chemspider.com/blog/how-many-electronic-databases-have-more-than-10000-cas-numbers.html/comment-page-1#comment-2025 Rich Apodaca Sat, 01 Sep 2007 14:26:06 +0000 http://www.chemspider.com/blog/?p=121#comment-2025 On the other hand, this situation has been out there for a long time. This is a very messy legal area and it could be argued that CAS' claim to copyright on CAS numbers may not hold H2O in court(disclaimer: IANAL) At least to my knowledge, their claim has never been tested. And if others have been violating the 10,000 CAS number limit for some time, the odds look even bleaker for CAS prevailing. I think CAS' argument rests on something like the cases argued by Major League Baseball about their ownership of statistics. Check out this article: http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2005/argument_schwarz_novdec05.msp Replacing "baseball" with "chemistry", and "Major League" with "CAS" provides some food for thought. The problem is that some act of creativity is involved in generating baseball statistics. You need leagues, rules, games, etc. CAS numbers are more like telephone numbers - a shorthand string of digits with much less creativity involved than in generating baseball statistics. There's a well-known case in which a company using another company's telephone numbers and contact info won the right to keep using them, royalty-free: http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/499_US_340.htm On the other hand, this situation has been out there for a long time. This is a very messy legal area and it could be argued that CAS’ claim to copyright on CAS numbers may not hold H2O in court(disclaimer: IANAL) At least to my knowledge, their claim has never been tested. And if others have been violating the 10,000 CAS number limit for some time, the odds look even bleaker for CAS prevailing.

I think CAS’ argument rests on something like the cases argued by Major League Baseball about their ownership of statistics. Check out this article:

http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2005/argument_schwarz_novdec05.msp

Replacing “baseball” with “chemistry”, and “Major League” with “CAS” provides some food for thought. The problem is that some act of creativity is involved in generating baseball statistics. You need leagues, rules, games, etc.

CAS numbers are more like telephone numbers – a shorthand string of digits with much less creativity involved than in generating baseball statistics. There’s a well-known case in which a company using another company’s telephone numbers and contact info won the right to keep using them, royalty-free:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/499_US_340.htm

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