Re: Public Domain Drug Database?

[Elizabeth Barham <soggytrousers@yahoo.com>]

Karsten Hilbert <Karsten.Hilbert@gmx.net> writes:
> Also, public domain probably isn't the best possible licensing
> status for a drug listing.

Hi,

I've been toying with the idea of writing a medication rating system
that is an online web application in which users are able to give
comments about medications that they have used. One of it's features
is to allow people to enter in new medications if it is not currently
available. For this, though, they must enter in certain requirements,
such as the name of the drug and it's manufacturer.

The goal was to make it useful in that if a person were considering
taking a medication they could easily check the comments of other
people and it see it's "satisfaction rating" from -10 - 10 (negatives
being "this is a bad drug!"). If it gained any popularity, the drug
information itself would naturally grow as more and more users enter
in new medications to rate.

I currently am involved in a number of projects so I have not been
able to work upon it. But it should have the ability to export the raw
drug information to whomever wants it.

I checked the copyright page for the US Government and it says that
general things, such as weights and names, are not copyrightable. From
this I suppose that a listing in the drug book I have:

diazoxide, parenteral. Use: Antihypetensive

is not copyrightable as it's just a fact.

I just mention the "drug rating app" because it always seemed like a
good idea that never came about.

Elizabeth