At 10:52 AM 6/5/99 PDT, Charlotte ~ wrote: >Well, obits are written by someone, if anyone the family, they provide the >information...they are facts usually not original stories so not >copyrightable...even the longer obits are usually written by a family member >so they might have the copyright but not the paper...facts at present are >not copyrightable...the concern is that the database bills will change >that.... Original works, no matter how large or small, are copyrighted under todays copyright laws (in the U.S.) no matter who wrote them. Newspaper obituaries may not satisfy the standard for originality because they are written by a standard process or procedure. No originiality... just plug in the name of the deceased and his/her life information, name of survivors, where the services will be held and who to send memorial donations to. The 1976 Act ...s 102(b), which identifies specifically those elements of a work for which copyright is not available: "In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." (FEIST PUBLICATIONS, INC., Petitioner v. RURAL TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY, INC. http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikegoad/feist.htm and http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikegoad/code.htm ) Mike Goad ________________ 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