[sac-board] Re: Fw: copyrighted or public domain of double stardata base

Jack Jones replied,

>But if it's not considered copyrighted as an original entity as most
>material is on the web, then it amounts to nothing more than a "Gentlemen's
>Agreement". We can only ask in either case. They can credit it or they can
>use it how they want and don't HAVE to do anything if they don't want to
>unless they're a nice guy.

Most stuff on the web is not copyrighted and whatever is put on the 
web is up for grabs. You can add a copyright notice and people can 
ignore it. Do you have legal recourse? Yes, but few would pursue that 
and even then only if there are BIG $$ involved and you are willing 
to spend the time and money to pursue it. A much better approach is 
to not worry about it or just ask to be credited as the source.

Note: Nowhere is there any information regarding what can or cannot 
be done with the data. I suggest adding a note on the SAC web page 
where the downloads are indicating the data can be used freely, but 
requesting a comment on any further publications or distributions 
indicating the source for the compiled data was SAC.

BTW, I have converted the Double Star data to a more conventional 
form (tab separated data fields and imported it into a new database. 
I plan to do the same for the deep Sky Objects data. I have also done 
this for the SAO data (nearly 250,000 stars). Anyone interested in 
the database, just let me know. These databases are very easy to 
search and display print specific sets of data. What I have created 
(the database structure) I distribute freely.

Jeff
-- 
                                      Jeff Hopkins
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