Hi B.J., While this is true, I think my first letter to him was put to him in as a friendly way as I could. All I did was point out that he shouldn't have copied the files and insist he remove them and also told him to feel free to link to the files. I gave him a week to respond and have had no response. I know of one submitter who wrote to him asking him to please give her credit for her work or remove her files. All he had to do was respond. I think we are being fair about this and I did ask for advice from other Archives Project Managers before even writing to the guy. I was told to write to him asking him to remove the files and give him a week to do so and then if I didn't receive a response to contact the server. This is what I have done. I am sure this guy may be a very nice guy, but he should at least reply to our emails. Lygia At 10:04 AM 5/12/99 -0400, B.J. Smothers wrote: >Fellow Alabama Coordinators, > >I wish I'd seen the postings about this earlier but was otherwise >preoccupied with my mom's illness. > >This poor guy probably had the bejesus scared out of him! He's a regular >poster on the AfriGeneas list and seems like a nice guy. I'm sure he's >pretty new to the internet and was probably unaware that he couldn't post >material in it's entirety without permission. Some newbies are confused by >the distinction between this and linking to a site. > >I saw a posting about a cemetery listing (not one in AL; I would have >recognized that one) on AfriGeneas and LINKED to the one on his site >unaware that it wasn't his work. He even responded to my question about >whether it was an African American cemetery. > >In the future when we come across things like this let's keep it in >perspective and give the offenders the benefit of doubt. It's not as though >this were a large site where they disguise the theft by hiding our files in >databases only accessible by search engine. This guy's were out in the >open. He was pretty proud of his site and even invited folks to come visit! > >Whoever found this first should have just dropped him a friendly line along >the lines of "BTW, did you know you can't..." and allowed him to remove >them gracefully. > >We've ALL made mistakes early in our internet careers! > >B.J. Smothers >Dallas, Marengo and Wilcox counties > Lygia Dawkins Cutts 881 Weaver Road Brewton, AL 36426 Cuttstree@Net1inc.net Lygia's Genealogy Page http://users.net1inc.net/cuttstree/index.htm Southwest AL Genealogy Surname Registry http://members.tripod.com/~lygia/index-1.html ALGenWeb - AL File Manager http://www.rootsweb.com/~algwarch/alfiles.htm ALGenWeb - Escambia County http://users.net1inc.net/cuttstree/escambia/gendex.html ALGenWeb - Lamar County http://www.rootsweb.com/~allamar/lamar.htm ALGenWeb - Conecuh County http://www.rootsweb.com/~alconecu/conecco.html Lygia's Clogging Page http://users.net1inc.net/cuttstree/clog.htm