I have noticed on a number of occasions people volunteering to take photos of headstones in cemeteries and then posting them on the net. Is there a way to go about doing this? Should the owner of the cemetery (i.e. church or municipality) be contacted first? Would this site receive complaints from the OGS? Just curious. Pat -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.0 - Release Date: 1/17/2005

There are 2 potential issues with headstones: a) privacy of living individuals, (and/or deceased) and b) copyright infringement. a) if a surviving spouse has had their info, (date of birth, name) engraved on the marker, it would be inappropriate to publish such information on the net (identity theft, etc). In the USA, the deceased have no rights re privacy. In Canada, personal information is not public domain until AT LEAST 20 years after death. b) the FACTS, (name, date of death) on a headstone cannot be copyrighted. The decorations, phrasing of expression, overall appearance can be. The owner of the design would seem to be the registered owner of the grave/ headstone, or their heirs would be the ones who MIGHT have a basis of objection, should they care to. If asked, most cemeteries would choose to have you NOT take the photo, so that they can avoid the whole question, even if they are not directly involved. They don't want to be accused of dereliction of duties by allowing the photo to be taken for such a purpose. All my opinion only (notice me ducking now), not represented as expert. Ron On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:04:17 -0500, Patricia Copeland wrote: >I have noticed on a number of occasions people volunteering to take photos >of headstones in cemeteries and then posting them on the net. Is there a >way to go about doing this? Should the owner of the cemetery (i.e. church >or municipality) be contacted first? Would this site receive complaints >from the OGS? Just curious. >Pat Ron Cushman net-genealogy@rogers.com ON, Canada