Medline abstracts copyrighted or not?

From: Joan . <nursejorn_1[_at_]hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:55:02 -0400

I have read the copyright information through Pubmed and I am not clear on the issue of fair use. If I do a search on Pubmed and download the citations and abstracts (when available) for further review to determine which references would be worth purchasing the full text article, is downloading those abstracts considered fair use as long as I include all identifying information to acknowledge the NLM?

They state ""Government information at NLM Web sites is in the public domain. Public domain information may be freely distributed and copied, but it is requested that in any subsequent use the National Library of Medicine (NLM) be given appropriate acknowledgement."

I cannot imagine locating hundreds of abstracts and need to request permission for every author to download those abstracts for review and/or to share them with a colleague to decide which full text articles to purchase. It seems to me that this should be considered fair use for research purposes but I would be wrong since it would part of business which is profit.

Thank you for feedback.

Joan

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Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ Received on Wed Apr 13 2005 - 00:55:02 GMT