Kathy Summers wrote: > "I know this argument goes on and on but you really have to think > about what is fair, not what you wish was fair because it benefits > you." *Sigh* Why is that a realistic interpretation of public domain always meets with this argument? It seems to imply that those of us who attempt to have a nuanced understanding of copyright are only doing so to benefit ourselves? What people that make this argument don't seem to understand is that the concept of the public domain is there to benefit EVERYONE. Not me, not you, but the people of the United States as a whole (I don't claim to know anything about laws outside of the US). It also assumes that I, and others who I believe have been stating the legally correct view about public domain and what is copyrightable, are somehow doing things that Kathy and others would deem not "fair or ethical." I doubt that is the case. By all means, you should use the originals when doing a transcription. I think all of us would agree that is the best practice, and applaud you for it. However, you be careful of some statements you make, such as "I consider all work which has been produced by the efforts and cost of someone else copyrighted." That, unfortunately, would cover just about anything you could ever possibly use in genealogy. Microfilm has been produced by the efforts of those who scanned, so you can't use those. "Original records" of censuses may well be copies made by clerks or counties, so you can't really use those either. Anything you get in a library was only paid for once, yet used by hundreds of people -- why don't you go buy your own copy to give the author/compiler/person putting in the effort some remuneration? Do you put a time limit on not using the effort of others, or would you have people redoing things that have been done hundreds of years ago? (The law puts a very definite time limit, though a quite long one, on copyright protection) This may seem like a silly argument, but the public domain is there to put very needed and useful limits on copyright, and what can be withheld from common use. James