Dear colleagues,

I would like to ask about what the copyright law is relating to one person sending a PDF to another person who does not have access to
the full text of the article. It seems that everyone is doing it. There is even one email group, Free-for-All, where this appears to be the main purpose.

By way of introduction, I am the coordinator of the HIFA2015 campaign and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network. I started my career as a hospital doctor in the UK, and have clinical experience in rural Ecuador and Peru.  We (HIFA2015) are a group of 2300 professionals worldwide (librarians, researchers, health professionals, policymakers) who are working towards a future where people are no longer dying for lack of knowledge (it's a sad fact that huge numbers are dying every day often for the simple reason that the caregiver or health worker responsible simply does not have the knowledge to diagnose and deliver effective care).

To achieve our goal, it is important that members are able to exchange occasional articles as PDFs, so that we can reach a shared analysis of information needs of healthcare providers in developing countries, and how to meet them. Such exchange does not imply that the PDFs are reproduced on the web, nor that they are distributed to the group. We are talking specifically, for example, about one member being able to send another member a PDF.
 
My initial informal inquiries suggest that members simply can't do this for copyrighted materials. Is that really true? Is copyright law really stifling our ability as development practitioners to work for the common good?
 
I hear others talk about 'fair use' in relation to dialogue for humanitarian reasons, yet my understanding of 'fair use' is that it
does not extend to allow sharing of knowledge for humanitarian or international development purposes.
 
I apologise for the fact that I am a novice in the area of copyright and these subjects have doubtless been covered on this list many times before. Apologies for duplication...
 
Best wishes,

Dr Neil Pakenham-Walsh MB,BS
Coordinator, HIFA2015 Campaign
Co-director, Global Healthcare Information Network
16 Woodfield Drive
Charlbury, Oxfordshire OX7 3SE, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1608 811338
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web (GHI-net): http://www.ghi-net.org     
Web (HIFA2015): http://www.hifa2015.org
Web (HIFA 2009 Challenge): http://www.hifa2015.org/2009-challenge

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