I was under the impression that it is copyright infringement to take someone s transcription verbatim and publish it?? I believe that Sara is going to put the material on a website - granted she is not selling it, but is it still personal use when used on a website? Now who is to say where exactly she got the information from if it is in the public domain, realistically only she knows. Rene' -------Original Message------- From: James Capobianco Date: 03/10/06 16:19:25 To: COPYRIGHT-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [COPYRIGHT] transcribing and copyright protection (was HeritageQuest Images) Sara wrote: >Thanks. I was beginning to feel incredibly stupid. Copyright discussions do that to everyone, don't worry. There are so many different subtle concepts and emotions flying, it's hard to really understand what's going on most of the time. As for Rene's comments, namely: "You cannot freely give to others using their transcription or sell to others" and "Yes some of the images are of census items, but they have also transcribed those images," others have pointed out that U.S. Copyright Law affords no protection to facts, nor sweat of the brow, or "oh, that took so much time and money" arguments. Transcripts, if they faithfully represent public domain documents, are themselves in the public domain. No one can own them. Rene' also wrote: "Would you like others to take your information that you worked hard to find and transcribe, and sell it or give it to whoever?" Indeed, this is where the emotions and sense of justice or reward come in. Of course, we want to be properly rewarded for our efforts. However, we should go into a project to transcribe public domain documents with the desire for everyone's greater good in mind, since only the commentary and creatively written additions to that transcription will have copyright protection. Really, this is best for everyone in the genealogical community. Wouldn't we rather have all of this information available for free for those who need it, rather than needing big companies with lots of money as gatekeepers? Best, James ==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== To unsubscribe from this list click on mailto:COPYRIGHT-L-request@rootsweb com?subject=unsubscribe (list mode) or mailto:COPYRIGHT-D-request@rootsweb com?subject=unsubscribe (digest mode) – Contact COPYRIGHT-admin@rootsweb.com for list related problems. For the COPYRIGHT-L archives, go to http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/copyright. ============================== New! Family Tree Maker 2005. Build your tree and search for your ancestors at the same time. Share your tree with family and friends. Learn more: http://landing.ancestry.com/familytreemaker/2005/tour.aspx?sourceid=14599&targetid=5429