Don't forget if you are copying someone else's material with out verifingy it, you may copy theier mistakes (or intentional errors). matt emerson wrote: > > "Very probably. However, if another individual uses facts or public domain > information from that book to write a paper on "MA Deaths of Family > Dougherty (and all Variations) with Named Parent's," it is a different > selection of the original facts." > > Mike, I agree with this - as long as the source is properly cited. > Confining the material used to one name or one family is not a > sufficient "taking" to damage the book's sale value and it could > be argued that the "Dougherty article" gave the book publicity > and enhanced its sale value. This is a far far different thing from > publishing an entire database or book to a > WWW site, which was the original topic of discussion. > > "However, a compilation of ALL of the names of people with their headstone > inscriptions buried in the "Cedar Bluffs Cemetery" probably would not be > sufficiently original, especially of the entries are ordered in > alphabetical or chronilogical order." > > Before anyone decides to publish such a database to a WWW > site in its entirety, they'd be well advised to check the copy- > right and get permission from the compiler. We're all > amateurs and this is a complex legal issue. A rule of thumb > I recall from my school days is if a fact or bit of information is > commonly available (5 or more places) it can be considered > "public domain", and that may have played a part in the Feist > decision. Depending on who owns Cedar Bluff Cemetery, and > hence the cemetery records, those facts may not be public > domain. The sort of info that goes into a phone directory is > currently and commonly available in a number of different > places. I see a world of difference between a phone directory > and most genealogical compilations. > > To quote Dr. B: "The issue is doing The Right Thing. > The right thing generally involves working with authors, gensocs, > and publishers and trying to avoid damaging the economic value of > what they do." > > Hope we haven't bored the list to death - have a good Sunday, > all! > > Kathleen. -- L. L. Scott, IBSSG L. L. Scott's Virtual Office: http://www.geocities.com/~llscott/ BEAR/ BRANNAN/ BRICKER/ BRIDGE/ BACKUS/ BRAUN/ DOTY/ HARPER/ HATCH/ PLANK