> BTW, I'm sure I have seen a copyright notice posted on some AIS indexes I > have used over the years. Or did I? Maybe it was just in the "Introduction?" An index is a creative work, and so copyrightable (and even so by a different person who comes along later and creates one based on another person's work -- derivative but original expression). > Sorry to have been so disagreeable, but I will NEVER submit that my > compilation of the entire censuses are not protected by copyright. Then some day you may learn an expensive legal lesson. I assume that you have sold a number of your books, which means that they are useful to others. I therefore hope you have recovered your costs and even made some extra. But I doubt you will make a mint off of them, and their apparent noncopyrightability is one reason why. S R C A cott obert ranston nderson [email protected]

Scott, Having worked for AIS, the copyright applied to the entire books because of the format and markers used. This was upheld in 1993 as part of out of court settlement against the infringers. David Scott Anderson wrote: > > > BTW, I'm sure I have seen a copyright notice posted on some AIS indexes I > > have used over the years. Or did I? Maybe it was just in the "Introduction?" > > An index is a creative work, and so copyrightable (and even so by a different person who comes along later and creates one based on another person's work -- derivative but original expression). > > > Sorry to have been so disagreeable, but I will NEVER submit that my > > compilation of the entire censuses are not protected by copyright. > > Then some day you may learn an expensive legal lesson. > > I assume that you have sold a number of your books, which means that they are useful to others. I therefore hope you have recovered your costs and even made some extra. But I doubt you will make a mint off of them, and their apparent noncopyrightability is one reason why. > > S R C A > cott obert ranston nderson > [email protected] > > ==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== > Threaded archives at > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/COPYRIGHT-L/ > > ============================== > Ancestry.com Genealogical Databases > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist2.asp > Search over 2500 databases with one easy query!

At 05:41 PM 11/21/00 -0700, W. David Samuelsen wrote: >Having worked for AIS, the copyright applied to the entire books >because of the format and markers used. This was upheld in 1993 as >part of out of court settlement against the infringers. Can you provide a citation for this case? A relevant court decision would seem to be the simplest way to settle the issue of whether census transcriptions are a creative product, and hence copyrighted, or are instead the product of hard work and deep skill, and hence not copyrighted. Peter Hirtle [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------- Peter B. Hirtle Co-Director [email protected] Cornell Institute for Digital Collections 607/255-4033 (ph) 2B Kroch Library 607/255-9524 (fax) Cornell University <http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/> Ithaca, NY 14853 ----------------------------------------------------------------