Let's be sure that I understand. If I view the census, make my own compilation or transcription and make my own index; I have not violated any copyright. Is that correct? I am, however, not sure how two or more indices of the same set of facts could be unique. Margaret Margaret Scott Anderson wrote: > > On Tuesday, November 21, 2000, Bennie White <[email protected]> wrote: > > > (I have a cemetery inscription compilation at the printers as we speak- > > > copyrighted, I might add). > > On Tuesday, November 21, 2000, I wrote: > > That's very different. You put that together yourself, so you deserve a > > copyright on it and protection for it. > > On Tuesday, November 21, 2000, Margaret McCleskey <[email protected]> wrote: > > What if I go to a cemetery, plot it, walk it, and record the burials > > there then put the information into a book? The information on the > > stones is a form of public record available to anyone who visits the > > cemetery, death records for some states are on line, obituaries are in > > the newspaper, funeral home records are available for searching by > > anyone. It seems to me that, here, again only the format and index if > > there is one are copyrightable. The facts are not. > > That is correct. By definition of copyright, it only applies to the expression (format), not to the facts themselves. > > This is in contrast to the census tables, whose format preexisted and which Bennie appears to have copied unchanged for some of his books. > > His index would be copyrighted in both cases. > > S R C A > cott obert ranston nderson > [email protected] > > ==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== > Freepages, that is free web pages > http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/press/freepages.html > > ============================== > Shop Ancestry - Everything you need to Discover, Preserve & Celebrate > your heritage! > http://shop.myfamily.com/ancestrycatalog

The don't have to necessarily be different. As long as you yourself compiled the data from the original microfilm of the census, no violation. The fact that someone else had already used the same original records to compile their version has no bearing on it. Bennie Margaret McCleskey wrote: > > Let's be sure that I understand. If I view the census, make my own > compilation or transcription and make my own index; I have not violated > any copyright. Is that correct? > > I am, however, not sure how two or more indices of the same set of facts > could be unique. > > Margaret >