Until I received death certificates from Pennsylvania, I would have agreed with Cliff. The certificates included a warning that they were not to be copied. I have not checked on the legality of this and have no idea how or why Pennsylvania objects to my making copies. One death occurred in the 1920's and the other in 1934. Cliff wrote: > You asked if you could scan some old marriage, birth, and death certificates (for which you paid in order to get the copies) and then print them in a publication. They would be public documents, so you could do it. They can't be copyrighted. The Copyright Law of 1976 is federal and affects all states the same.

First, I think Cliff is wrong. It is only federal documents that are in the public domain; state documents can be copyrighted by the individual states, depending on the laws of that state. In reality, while the state might have some copyright claim to the design of the form, I don't think they could exert control over the facts recorded on the form. I noticed the same thing on a Massachusetts death certificate, which stated: IT IS ILLEGAL TO ALTER OR REPRODUCE THIS DOCUMENT IN ANY MANNER. My best guess is that the enabling legislation, which prohibits reproductions, was intended to prevent fraud. In drafting it, though, the state legislature wrote with too broad a pen. They wouldn't be the first to claim a copyright and associated rights where none exists. In the unlikely even that the state chose to sue you for violating what I assume is a state law prohibiting reproductions (with a $100 fine in Massachusetts), your defense might run into problems over jurisdictional issues. You would want the case to be argued in a federal court, where copyright issues are heard. States can't be sued over copyright matters, however, and so it could be that the case would remain in state court where a copyright defense could not be heard. I would ask first before scanning. Peter "I am not a lawyer" Hirtle At 06:59 AM 11/23/00 -0600, maryann wrote: >Until I received death certificates from Pennsylvania, I would have >agreed with Cliff. The certificates included a warning that they were >not to be copied. I have not checked on the legality of this and have >no idea how or why Pennsylvania objects to my making copies. One >death occurred in the 1920's and the other in 1934. > >Cliff wrote: > > You asked if you could scan some old marriage, birth, and death >certificates (for which you paid in order to get the copies) and then >print them in a publication. They would be public documents, so you >could do it. They can't be copyrighted. The Copyright Law of 1976 is >federal and affects all states the same. > > > > > >==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== >Check out the new communities at RootsWeb >http://www.communities.rootsweb.com/ > >============================== >Shop Ancestry - Everything you need to Discover, Preserve & Celebrate >your heritage! >http://shop.myfamily.com/ancestrycatalog