I find myself very confused about the copyright laws as to old records. I have been reading through the archives of the list, and I am most impressed with what is there. A lawyer recently got a friend most upset. She is a nice person who wanted to share. She had asked about copyright issues before she posted to another list, and they gave her the go ahead. The lawyer wrote her privately and had her in tears. I felt for her. My question is this: A genealogical society publishes the marriage records of an area from the 1800's. A person finds the records in a much older issue of the magazine. Asks the list before she posts, get no negative responses, and several OKs. She posts the marriage records to the list. ** Does the genealogical society own the copyright? If so, is it because they transcribed the records into their magazine.? I can understand that they would be frustrated. I do not like to see my research quoted or posted without my knowledge. BUT I am only asking about legal ramifications here, not feelings. Does copying and transcribing the marriage book records give a group or person the copyright? I hope I do not sound unintelligent here, as I do have a college degree. It is useless however in this type of research. Be patient with my question, as it is meant sincerely, to help someone who is almost ready to walk away from research before she gets started. Thanks for your patience. Sydney Cardner (the Sydney is female) Florida

that lawyer has some information confused. the facts that are public domain are the names, dates, etc as they were taken from government records (not copyrightable at all). What that society copyrighted is the FORMAT in which the information was presented. W. David Samuelsen Bruce Cardner wrote: > > I find myself very confused about the copyright laws as to old records. I > have been reading through the archives of the list, and I am most impressed > with what is there. > > A lawyer recently got a friend most upset. She is a nice person who wanted > to share. She had asked about copyright issues before she posted to another > list, and they gave her the go ahead. The lawyer wrote her privately and > had her in tears. I felt for her. > > My question is this: > > A genealogical society publishes the marriage records of an area from the > 1800's. A person finds the records in a much older issue of the magazine. > Asks the list before she posts, get no negative responses, and several OKs. > She posts the marriage records to the list. > > ** Does the genealogical society own the copyright? If so, is it because > they transcribed the records into their magazine.? > > I can understand that they would be frustrated. I do not like to see my > research quoted or posted without my knowledge. BUT I am only asking about > legal ramifications here, not feelings. > > Does copying and transcribing the marriage book records give a group or > person the copyright? I hope I do not sound unintelligent here, as I do > have a college degree. It is useless however in this type of research. Be > patient with my question, as it is meant sincerely, to help someone who is > almost ready to walk away from research before she gets started. > > Thanks for your patience. > Sydney Cardner (the Sydney is female) > Florida > > ==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== > Searchable archives at > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=copyright > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/