Status 03 January 2014.
Webpage created 29 December 2013, under construction.
The webpage is devoted to unsolved ethical and legal problems in international elementary particle physics.
Any comments should be directed to tordriemann@gmail.com; they are welcome and will be used for the optimization of the webpage.



Few recent developments in the ZFITTER/Gfitter conflict



03 January 2014
The webpage of the Board od Directors of DESY, http://fh.desy.de/projekte/gfitter01/ Gfitter01.htm, has got some necessary add-ons.
The resulting webpage is Gfitter01.html

To summarize the situation per 28 December 2013:
The expectations of the ZFITTER memorandum of 4 November 2012, the so-called "ZFITTER one-page-memo", have not been fulfilled so far.

The ZFITTER project homepage is zfitter.com.

For a chronicle of the ZFITTER/Gfitter conflict until April 2013 see: ZFITTER/Gfitter chronicle

20 July 2013 - New internet blog: "Friends of ZFITTER"



12 August 2013 - New webpage of the Board of Directors of DESY: http://fh.desy.de/projekte/gfitter01/ Gfitter01.htm
Commented at Friends of ZFITTER

August 2013: News from a German Helmholtz centre On 1 August 2013, the case of three disciplinary measures of a German Helmholtz centre against the ZFITTER spokesperson was brought by the ZFITTER spokesperson before the Labour Court of county Brandenburg in Cottbus.
A compromise, proposed by the judge, failed so that the court will decide on the case in December 2013.
The trial at Labour Court of Brandenburg has been shifted to March 2014.

On 8 July 2013, the Commercial Director of a German Helmholtz centre suspected that the ZFITTER spokesperson is not only the ZFITTER spokesperson, but also the responsible author of the German internet blog "Gfitterplag".
The blog Gfitterplag is written by Ethik-Gruppe Brandenburger Gymnasiasten.
The Commercial Director of a German Helmholtz centre demanded changes at http://zfitter.com, complained about Gfitterplag, and announced to fire the ZFITTER spokesperson in case that the publication policies will not get changed.
We do not find this appropriate.
The basic conflict is an ethical, scientific one, and should not be re-directed into questions of labour law.
The basic conflict is between ZFITTER and Gfitter, and should not be handled by a Commercial Director of a German Helmholtz centre.

Since 25 July 2013, there is the official webpage of a German Helmholtz centre http://fh.desy.de/projekte/gfitter01/ Gfitter01.htm on the Gfitter project.
The responsible author is the Representative of the German Helmholtz centre.
The webpage http://fh.desy.de/projekte/gfitter01/ is not reported by search engines.
We got informed by "Friends of ZFITTER".

28 March 2013
The final decision of the DESY directorate on:
"Suspected case of scientific misconduct Zfitter[ZFITTER]/Gfitter"

added on 18 July 2013
The decision and an accompanying letter were reproduced in German at a google link.
In addition, we reproduced here English tranlations of both documents.
We did so because a general interest of the public is evident, and both documents were not labeled as being confidential or only as being restricted to a limited community.
We follow the demand of DESY dated 8 July 2013, known to us since 15 July 2013, not to share these four documents with the public.

28 March 2013
On 28 March 2013, the DESY Directorate decided finally on the "Suspected case of scientific misconduct Zfitter [ZFITTER]/Gfitter". The decision NB.1735 became known to the ZFITTER spokesperson on 20 April 2013.
It is reproduced in German here:

ERASED 18 July 2013, 1/7

An English translation may be found here:

ERASED 18 July 2013, 2/7

22 April 2013
The accompanying letter, dated 5 April 2013, arrived 22 April 2013, may be found here in German:

ERASED 18 July 2013, 3/7

An English translation may be found here:

ERASED 18 July 2013, 4/7

2 years ago - 21 April 2011
The 28 March 2013 DESY Directorate decision follows up the decision of the DESY Directorate of 21 April 2011 after the "Buchmüller report" (see the ZFITTER/Gfitter chronicle page).
The decision is reproduced here in German: 0B_sXq0RF9vRVMjZGN0pCTjNXb2M.
An English translation may be found here: 2011-04-21- direktoriumsbeschluss-zum-ombudsbericht-en.pdf.

Essentials of the 2013 decision are sentences of the introducing statements:

"... Given the expert reports requested, the Board of Directors may not observe a sufficient disrespection [hinreichende Beeinträchtigung] of copyright of the Zfitter authors.
The rules of good scientific practice have not been infringed,
since,
due to the lack of known rules [fehlende bekannte Regelbildung] for quotation of used open source software, no significant culpable misconduct may be identified. ..."


The introduction finishes with the statement

"The Board of Directors shall adopt ... measures in order to finally settle the conflict ..."

Few of the six "measures":

ERASED 18 July 2013, 5/7

The ZFITTER Memorandum of 4 November 2012

The Board of Directors of DESY "... shall adopt the ... measures in order to finally settle the conflict ..."
One can only hope that the "Measures" solve all the issues raised in the "Memorandum on ZFITTER/Gfitter" of 4 November 2012 on ZFITTER/Gfitter [one-page-memo ].
The memorandum expresses the expectations of the ZFITTER authors Prof. A. Akhundov, Prof. P.Christova, Dr. S. Riemann, Dr. T. Riemann et al.

Suspected reasoning behind the "Final decision" of the DESY Directorate on "Suspected case of scientific misconduct Zfitter [ZFITTER]/Gfitter"

The details of the decision are of general relevance for the particle physics community because they define the approach of a "Big Particle Physics Lab" on central issues of the practical handling of academic software.



The reader will understand that, in view of the present situation, we do not comment the documents in further detail. At the ZFITTER/Gfitter chronicle page, we will allow ourselves to place, step by step, further auxiliary information.


"Abmahnung" - a disciplinary measure in German labor law

The ZFITTER spokesperson was informed on the decision of the DESY Board of Directors on the ZFITTER/Gfitter conflict in connection with the related decision to sanction the ZFITTER spokesperson by an "Abmahnung" on 20 March 2013. Abmahnung (notice) is a disciplinary measure in German labor law.

The "Abmahnung" (notice) of the ZFITTER spokesperson is, if we neglect the "schriftliche Ermahnung" (written warning) against him as less significant, the only sanction decided in the "Suspected case of scientific misconduct Zfitter [ZFITTER]/Gfitter".

The "Abmahnung" is performed in accordance with DESY GO/BO 2010, the company regulations (BO), "Violation of work obligation, BO 204, GO page 81":
204 Violation of work obligation
If employees violate obligations that are incumbent on them, the -V2- department of DESY can initiate the following measures depending on the severity of the violation of work obligation:
a) written warning (schriftliche Ermahnung),
b) notice (Abmahnung),
c) termination (Küdigung).



In short term, the above last minute informations will be relocated to the ZFITTER/Gfitter chronicle page.



Personal Statement

On 20 March 2013, the employer of the ZFITTER spokesperson performed a disciplinary measure against him, by issuing a written notice of warning (Abmahnung).
This disciplinary measure has been initiated by the employer as part of the negotiations of the ZFITTER and Gfitter collaborations. The negotiations concern the copyright violations claimed by ZFITTER since March 2011.
If a necessity is seen by the employer, the next step is the termination of employment of the ZFITTER spokesperson.
As a signal of good-will, we slightly edited this webpage, although it is not part of content of the written notice of warning.
We do so in order to safely ensure that this webpage will not contain any material which might damage the reputation of the employer, its employees, and/or its/their cooperation partners.
To damage the reputation of any institution or person was not and is not our intention.
In case you, as a visitor of this webpage, find any need to improve the contents further in this respect, please send an email to tordriemann@googlemail.com.

Today, after more than two years of negotiations, one may develop the opinion it would have been appropriate to stay silent.
In this specific case.
Even in view of evident plagiarism.
We did not stay silent, and after careful consultation with relatives, collegues, and friends we come to the conclusion:
"When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie." [Yevgeny Yevtushenko]

Dr. Tord Riemann, ZFITTER spokesperson, April 2013, Königs Wusterhausen

The "Abmahnung" is performed in accordance with DESY GO/BO 2010, the company regulations (BO), "Violation of work obligation, BO 204, GO page 81":
204 Violation of work obligation
If employees violate obligations that are incumbent on them, the -V2- department of DESY can initiate the following measures depending on the severity of the violation of work obligation:
a) written warning (schriftliche Ermahnung),
b) notice (Abmahnung),
c) termination (Küdigung).


For some facts on the ZFITTER - Gfitter negotiations 2011 - 2013: see the ZFITTER/Gfitter chronicle page.


Copyright © Tord Riemann zfitter.com 2011 - 2013
Die Vervielfältigung, Verbreitung und Veröffentlichung unterliegt der Creative Commons-Lizenz [Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Keine Bearbeitung 3.0 Deutschland License]

Tord Riemann

Last modified: December 2013
Disclaimer