Dear Lin Ruihua:
Thank you for your recent inquiry. I am the Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the American Chemical Society, and I am pleased to respond to your information request. We continually look for ways to improve the manner in which we secure and monitor access to ACS copyrighted information, and we appreciate the efforts of your publication, China Culture Daily, in directing attention to these concerns.
As you are well aware, the Internet has greatly increased the ability to publish and access all manner of information and media-news, music, pictures, books, movies as well as scientific research. This has put information at the fingertips of more people around the world than at any other point in human history which is a tremendous advancement to help spread knowledge and understanding. This increased accessibility has unfortunately also given rise to attempts to illegally take copyrighted materials from information providers, and as you are aware this has become a worldwide problem.
ACS, like other information providers, has implemented measures to guard against illegal attempts to take our copyrighted materials. Out of respect for the confidentiality of our customers we do not publicly discuss specifics about a customer’s account activity, but rather prefer to work directly with customers whose access to ACS content and services may become interrupted because of situations that warrant further review. In keeping with this practice, we will not comment directly about the National Library of China and its use of ACS published material.
As I mentioned, ACS does in fact have monitoring systems in place to guard against illegal taking of copyrighted material. I have contacted Mr. John Sullivan, Chief Information Officer for the ACS, to ask him to remark in general on your questions about inappropriate downloading and use of our Society’s published content. Here is his reply, which you may share with your readers as quoted:
“At ACS, we do have automated systems in place to monitor usage patterns and identify suspected inappropriate use of our copyrighted content. The criteria we use to evaluate instances of possible infringement are the same for all customers, regardless of their geographic location. In the event that our monitors are triggered, the customer’s access privileges for licensed ACS intellectual property are suspended, either for a restricted portion of the customer’s network or all authorized users. ACS representatives contact the customer or its designated representative and work to resolve any problems. Once the problems are corrected, access to ACS content is again made available to the customer. To secure our information, we must rely on more than our own monitoring systems. We expect and rely on our customers to configure and manage their systems and security according to best information technology practices. When appropriate, we work directly with customers to help them and their authorized users comply with our download limits and policies.” (John Sullivan, Chief Information Officer, American Chemical Society).
Thank you for your interest in this matter, and for providing us with this opportunity to clarify how ACS values its customer relationships. We are grateful for the support and respect shown to ACS publications by researchers and scholars in China.
感谢你最近发来的邮件。我是ACS（美国化学学会）公共事务办公室主任，很高兴就你的要求作出回复。我们坚持不懈地寻找改进我们工作的方法，以确保ACS版权信息的安全并对接入实施监控。感谢《中国文化报》在引导公众对此事的关注方面所作的努力。
如你所知，因特网大大提升了发布与获取所有信息与媒体的能力——新闻、音乐、图片、图书、电影，当然还有科研成果。这使得信息在世界范围内令更多的人触手可及，比人类历史上的任何一个阶段都要便捷。对于传播知识与理解，这当然是一个巨大的进步。这种增长了的可获取性，同时也助长了从信息提供商非法获取具有版权的出版物的企图。如你所了解的那样，这已经成为一个全球性的问题。
与其他信息提供商一样，ACS也为保护自己的出版物免遭非法使用采取了措施。出于对我们客户机密的考虑，我们不会公开讨论某一客户账户活动的详情。对于接入ACS内容与服务的客户，如果其接入因发生需要进一步检讨的情形而可能面临中断的话，我们更愿意直接与客户共同作出努力。按此常规，我们无法直接对中国国家国书馆及其对ACS出版物的使用作出评价。
如我前述，ACS确实安装有防止出版物非法获取的监控系统。就你所提及的有关ACS出版内容的不恰当下载和使用问题，我专门联系了ACS信息主管约翰·苏利文先生。以下是他的回复，你可以以全文引用的方式与你们的读者分享：
“在ACS，我们确实安装有自动系统，以监测我们的版权内容的使用形态，并识别对版权内容的可疑的不正当使用。我们评估可能的侵权行为的标准，对所有客户都是一致的，无论其地理位置在哪儿。一旦监控系统报警，相关客户对ACS知识产权的存取权利便会被暂停，或者是针对该客户网络的一部分，或者是针对全部用户。ACS代表会与该客户或其指定代表联系以共同解决问题。在问题得到解决之后，该客户对ACS内容的接入便会恢复。为确保我们的信息安全，我们不能仅仅依靠我们自身的监控系统。我们期待并依赖我们的客户，按最好的信息技术实践水平对他们的系统和安全进行设置与管理。在适当情形下，我们愿意与我们的客户协同工作，以帮助他们的授权用户遵从我们的下载限定及策略。”
感谢你对此事的兴趣，并提供我们这一机会来表明ACS对客户关系的重视。我们感谢中国专家学者对ACS出版物所表现出的支持与尊重。
（本报记者林瑞华译）
