At 01:41 PM 6/2/99 PDT, Charlotte wrote: >Not unless there is something original and creative about the organization >of the set of links...the coding used to display them...if you're speaking >of the link that's public address, if you're talking about the web page >design...if it's orginial it can be copyrighted... > >Ever hear of the phone book...that was the case that just said the >collections of this sort could not be copyrighted...that's why you see so >many phone books now...<g>... The case was: FEIST PUBLICATIONS, INC., Petitioner v. RURAL TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY, INC. Argued Jan. 9, 1991. Decided March 27, 1991. There is a lot of applicability for compilatyions in genealogy in the Supreme Court opinion on this case by Sandra Day O'Connor. The entire text can be found at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikegoad/feist.htm An example from the text: "Even if a work qualifies as a copyrightable compilation, it receives only limited protection. This is the point of s 103 of the Act. Section 103 explains that "[t]he subject matter of copyright ... includes compilations," s 103(a), but that copyright protects only the author's original contributions--not the facts or information conveyed." And, though I'm not a lawyer, it is certainly easier reading than many of the old source documents that genealogists search for. Mike ________________ The Goad Family; Dover, AR, USA; mailto:[email protected] ; http://www.cswnet.com/~mgoad/ ; free DAR Patriot Index Lookups: http://www.cswnet.com/~mgoad/dar.html; Our on-line "bookstore:" http://www.cswnet.com/~sbooks Sponsor (Plus) of RootsWeb - To support cooperative, non-commercial, grass-roots genealogy go to http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html