George Mason University announced last week that the future of Zotero, a web browser application, will “remain unchanged” despite a lawsuit filed by Thomson Reuters Corporation in September. The lawsuit alleges that developers at the university’s Center For History and New Media improperly used Thomson Reuters’ EndNote to create Zotero, a free program.
The university also decided not to renew its site license for EndNote, the citation software that Thompson Reuters argues was improperly used.
The lawsuit, as reported by The Chronicle in September, argues that Zotero was “reverse-engineered” from EndNote. Thomson is seeking $10-million in damages.
The university also announced that it will re-release Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview, which still features support for citations made through EndNote, according to the software’s Web site.
Daniel Walsch, a university spokesman, sent out the statement on October 29 but has declined to comment further. “We have no plans to say anything at this point,” Mr. Walsch said. —David DeBolt
