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On Sep 29, 2008, at 10:19 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
> But there's nothing illegal about reverse engineering it. Unless  
> perhaps you've signed a contract saying you wouldn't (did George  
> Mason? Perhaps, if they have an EndNote license).

Initially, I agreed.  But it appears that George Mason did sign a site- 
wide license agreement (see the paragraph labeled #12 at http://dltj.org/article/zotero-lawsuit-extracts/ 
  ), and the license agreement explicitly prohibits reverse  
engineering (paragraph labeled #15).  To the best of my layman's  
understanding of the legal system, contract law (the license  
agreement) trumps copyright and patent law.

> I hope George Mason U is willing to stand up for Zotero. It's  
> popular enough that hopefully they will.

They /may/ be.  Paragraph #31 says that GMU referred the matter to  
outside counsel.  I suppose we just need to watch and wait to see what  
happens.


Peter
- --
Peter Murray                            http://www.pandc.org/peter/work/
Assistant Director, New Service Development  tel:+1-614-728-3600;ext=338
OhioLINK: the Ohio Library and Information Network        Columbus, Ohio
The Disruptive Library Technology Jester                http://dltj.org/
Attrib-Noncomm-Share   http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/


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