[sc-discuss] Internet Archive succeeds in getting DMCA reprieve for software preservation
William Bug
William.Bug at DrexelMed.edu
Wed Nov 29 21:39:09 EST 2006
Hi All,
Many may have seen this already, but I thought I make a brief post
here to recommend others read Brewster Kahle's brief post at the IA
regarding this recent decision:
http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=82097
Basically, IA can now circumvent copy protection in an effort to
preserve/archive software.
This obviously has relevance to the SC, as we're already 25 years
into the era where commercial software has often been a critical tool
in the lab. Many primary data records that even just 40 years ago
would be in lab notebooks and original chart recordings of various
types now are often stored in proprietary binary formats. It's true
old data of this sort is often disposed of, but one would hope in the
digital age, such data would eventually be made available as a
valuable archive for future meta-analysis.
Companies such as DNAStar, Scanalytics, Axon Instruments/Molecular
Devices, IGOR/Wavemetrics, etc. have been around now for >15 years.
Each of these companies' support pages has no mention of recovering/
reformating old files >15 years old (not a particularly profitable
task to invest resources in). I assume they'd be happy to help for a
fee, but that begs the question of whether its appropriate for a
research project to pay a company for assistance access data acquired
with licensed software on a public research grant.
DNAStar
https://www.dnastar.com/support/
Scanalytics
http://www.scanalytics.com/support/index.shtml
Axon Instruments/Molecular Devices
http://www.moleculardevices.com/pages/instruments/electrophys_main.html
IGOR Pro
http://www.wavemetrics.com/support/support.htm
One would hope there will also be an effort to preserve the many
other non-commercial software tools created and used by academic
researchers. There are currently many isolated archives of such
valuable resources, but there is an increasing need - and even
funding initiatives coming from the NIH, for instance, for broader
initiatives to host and preserve such valuable resources. Some
current examples are:
Netlib math software archive:
http://netlib.bell-labs.com/netlib/master/readme.html
Materials Computation Center Software Archive
http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/software/software.pl
Computational Chemistry List, ltd. Software Archive
http://www.ccl.net/cca/software/
The OpenScience Project
http://www.openscience.org/links/
The IU Bio-Archive Bioinformatics software archive
http://iubio.bio.indiana.edu:7780/
The EBI bioinformatics software ftp archive
ftp://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/software/
The Genetic Analysis Software List (not really an archive, but a
yellow pages list)
http://linkage.rockefeller.edu/soft/
Internet Analysis Tools Registry (again - a list - not an archive)
http://www.cma.mgh.harvard.edu/iatr/index.php
Speaking of data mining archival scientific data, are others aware of:
UCR Time Series Data Mining Archive
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~eamonn/TSDMA/
I just came across it, and it sounds very interesting.
I believe Don Doherty's company - Don may be on this list -
Brainstage Research, Inc. (http://www.brainstage.com/) is focussed on
the use of semantic web technology with a similar goal in mind.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bug
Senior Research Analyst/Ontological Engineer
Laboratory for Bioimaging & Anatomical Informatics
www.neuroterrain.org
Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy
Drexel University College of Medicine
2900 Queen Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19129
215 991 8430 (ph)
610 457 0443 (mobile)
215 843 9367 (fax)
Please Note: I now have a new email - William.Bug at DrexelMed.edu
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