David said to Dick Pence: >>You give a lecture at a genealogy convention and, with your approval, it >>is taped (either audio or video). >>Absent any specific contract point on this, who owns the copyright - the >>person who gave the lecture or the person who taped it? > >This is best asked at the National Genealogical Society office which is >located in Arlington, VA (I presume is next to Fairfax, VA) At the National Genealogical Society (and most other national society) conferences, the recording company typically issues contracts to speakers, spelling out their respective rights to the audio recordings. In spite of such contracts, however, there has been a lot of unpleasantness in recent years between speakers and the recording company surrounding copyright, sales of audio tapes, royalty payments, etc. As a result, the NGS Board has not invited any recording company to its annual conference which this year is in Chicago, 7-10 June 2006 (www.ngsgenealogy.org) so those lectures will not be recorded at all. We hope that we can return to recording lectures for future conferences. Dick's question may have been prompted by the fact that he will be a speaker my company's "Genealogy Conference and Cruise", Nov 11-18 2006 (http://www.whollygenes.com/cruise.htm) and he has asked that his presentation be recorded. Dick, I am happy to provide you with a contract specifying that you have exclusive rights to that audio recording. Bob Velke member, Board of Directors, National Genealogical Society and President, Wholly Genes Software -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.4.1/311 - Release Date: 4/13/2006