hi all

i sent this query to PubMed; their reply is below:

-------------------------------
Subj:    copyright regulations
Date:   98-05-04 13:22:22 EDT
From:   [log in to unmask] (Janet313)
To:     [log in to unmask]
-------------------------------

dear PubMed;

i would appreciate your advice/input
in re copyright restrictions on non-commercial distribution
of copies of the medical abstracts on your site

specifically, am i permitted, as an individual, to make a copy
of an abstract from your web-site
[either photocopy or e-mail copy]
and send it to a friend?

for whatever it may be worth
yours is the best medical site that i have found on the internet
i have been singing your praises since july 1997

best regards

janet paterson

almonte ontario canada
[log in to unmask]

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Subj:    Call 13864: copyright regulations
Date:   98-05-05 10:59:32 EDT
From:   [log in to unmask]
To:     [log in to unmask]

Thanks for your kind words.

Below is general information on Copyright issues.  Downloading several
citations and sending them to a friend should not be a problem.

Thanks,
Kathi Canese
National Library of Medicine


Information on Copyright for Author-Generated Abstracts

Prospective licensees and those considering downloading data for
redistribution should obtain opinion from legal counsel for any use planned
for the author-generated abstracts in NLM databases and to ensure compliance
with intellectual property laws. NLM cannot provide advice about copyright
issues. Some material in the NLM databases is from copyrighted publications of
the respective copyright claimants. Users of the NLM databases are solely
responsible for compliance with any copyright restrictions and are referred to
the publication data appearing in the bibliographic citations, as well as to
the copyright notices appearing in the original publications, all of which are
hereby incorporated by reference. Those who search MEDLARS databases may
download for personal use and may provide others with a single copy of
downloaded data.

Downloading Small Amounts of MEDLARS® Data for Redistribution

The following use of data from MEDLINE® and other MEDLARS databases requires
no written permission from or signed license agreement with NLM:

Users may download small amounts of data, e.g., the bibliographic citation and
MeSH terms, for a small number of citations from MEDLARS databases online at
NLM or from a MEDLARS licensee for redistribution either via a printed
publication or in electronic form using the Internet, World Wide Web, etc.
Downloading from a MEDLARS licensee is subject to the licensee's approval.

Definitions:

1. MEDLARS data excludes NIOSH, IPA and BIOSIS portions of TOXLINE®.

2. Download includes ftping results of an online search, arranging for the
results of an automatic stored search to be available for ftp, ftping MEDLARS
data from the NLM server, or a traditional download.

3. Small is defined as approximately 1,000 records per month from MEDLINE;
12,000 per year. Retrospective pulls of MEDLINE may include up to
approximately 12,000 records for each year covered. For other MEDLARS
databases, fewer than 25% of the records in the file may be downloaded, except
for AIDSLINE®, AIDSTRIALS, and AIDSDRUGS which may be downloaded in their
entirety. For larger portions of a MEDLARS database, please refer to the NLM
license packet which may be obtained from NLM's Web site accessible at:
     http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/leased.html.

4. Data is defined as bibliographic citations and MeSH terms. This document
grants permission to download only the bibliographic citations and MeSH terms;
it does not cover the author abstracts from the journals which are included in
MEDLINE and other MEDLARS databases. Users should obtain an opinion from their
legal counsel for any use they plan for the author-generated abstracts in the
MEDLARS databases.

Terms and Conditions:

1. Most NLM databases may be searched and records downloaded at no cost from
our World Wide Web site accessible at:
     http://www.nlm.nih.gov.

Select Free MEDLINE. An access code is not required. Usage reports are not
required and there is no foreign surcharge on foreign users' subsequent use of
the downloaded data. To make arrangements to download from a MEDLARS licensee,
please contact the licensee. MEDLARS licensees need not seek permission from
NLM nor report to NLM permissions to download.

2. Although a signed license agreement is not needed, users must ensure that
all downloaded publicly accessible data stored in electronic form for over one
year must be in compliance with the following provisions of the NLM license
agreement:

a. Users of these data must be provided a clear description of how the
product/service was derived, indicating the currency and the source database.

b. At least annually, the data in the downloaded product/service containing
searchable MEDLINE-derived data must be corrected to incorporate the
corrections NLM has made to these records during the year and in year-end
maintenance. MEDLARS data in the product/service must be carefully checked
with that maintained on NLM's version of the database at the end of each
calendar year and corrections made. This does not apply to products/services
containing MEDLINE-derived data which itself is not searchable (e.g., MEDLINE-
derived references and abstracts in the bibliography of an electronic
textbook). The MEDLINE-derived data should be updated when a new edition of
the product is released. In this case, users should be informed that the
MEDLINE-derived data may change.

c. Users are advised to consult legal counsel to ensure compliance with
intellectual property laws. NLM cannot provide advice about copyright issues.

d. Because NLM goes to considerable effort to assign MeSH terms, it prefers
that these be retained as assigned by the indexers.

e. The NLM record (or portion thereof) in the product/service must be labeled
so as to identify NLM as the source, except for data derived from CATLINE®,
AVLINE® or SERLINE®.

f. Trademark symbols must properly be used when referring to the NLM
databases, system and products. A product/service using downloaded data must
be named in a fashion that clearly distinguishes it from NLM-produced
databases accessible at NLM.

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even though i've never communicated
with this number of friends or family before
i still don't see anything here to convince me
that sending copies of relevant info to y'all
would ever warrant legal action

but i have broad shoulders anyway

if i had a support group in vivo so to speak
i might be making 25 copies instead of 1600
but that's a result of this heretofore unanticipated miraculous medium


your cyber-sibling in sharing citations

janet


janet paterson
51/10 - sinemet/selegiline/prozac
almonte/ontario/canada - [log in to unmask]