Hi, A couple of things for consideration: 1. If it can't be posted on GenConnect because of copyright issues, it probably shouldn't be published anywhere. Whether it is sold for profit or not, copyright infringement still applies. 2. If it's 50 years old, it probably is in the public domain. There would seldom be any commercial value for anything published that long ago, especially obituaries or memorials. Works published in the U.S. or a foreign country before January 1, 1964, entered the public domain if the copyright was never renewed by filing a renewal application during the 28th year after publication. The Copyright Office estimates that only about 15 percent of those works from before 1964 were actually renewed. Most of those that were renewed were renewed because they continued to have some sort of economic value. 3. Even in the unlikely event that the copyright of the publication of the document containing the memorial was renewed, use of the memorial would almost certainly fall under the "fair use" provisions of copyright law. Mike http://www.cswnet.com/~sbooks/genealogy/copyright/copyright.htm At 10:25 PM 2/13/01 -0800, Christine R wrote: >Ok. Let me see if I understand copyrightable material. An obit is not >necessarily copyrighted as there is no real originality. They all >basically follow the same pattern: so-and-so died, date, services will be, >survivers are,... But a memorial is a mini bio of the person written by >friend or family and therefore very original. So, I can post family obits >to genconnect boards, but not the accompaning memorial? Is there any >place where it would be accepted for the memorial to be posted? Can it be >included in a compilation of family history, if the book is not sold for >profit? I ask because I have several memorials on various family members >(about 50 yrs ago) that help to make these people *alive* & I really want >to share them. > >thanks for any feed-back. >christine >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > >==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== >Check out the new communities at RootsWeb >http://www.communities.rootsweb.com/ > >============================== >Create a FREE family website at MyFamily.com! >http://www.myfamily.com/banner.asp?ID=RWLIST2 >

need to ask this guy (I don't mean Mike) what the memorials this guy has, to describe what they are. If they're the ones that are given out at funeral services, then basic facts are pretty standard. David Mike Goad wrote: > > Hi, > > A couple of things for consideration: > > 1. If it can't be posted on GenConnect because of copyright issues, it > probably shouldn't be published anywhere. Whether it is sold for profit or > not, copyright infringement still applies. > > 2. If it's 50 years old, it probably is in the public domain. There would > seldom be any commercial value for anything published that long ago, > especially obituaries or memorials. Works published in the U.S. or a > foreign country before January 1, 1964, entered the public domain if the > copyright was never renewed by filing a renewal application during the 28th > year after publication. The Copyright Office estimates that only about 15 > percent of those works from before 1964 were actually renewed. Most of > those that were renewed were renewed because they continued to have some > sort of economic value. > > 3. Even in the unlikely event that the copyright of the publication of the > document containing the memorial was renewed, use of the memorial would > almost certainly fall under the "fair use" provisions of copyright law. > > Mike > http://www.cswnet.com/~sbooks/genealogy/copyright/copyright.htm > > At 10:25 PM 2/13/01 -0800, Christine R wrote: > >Ok. Let me see if I understand copyrightable material. An obit is not > >necessarily copyrighted as there is no real originality. They all > >basically follow the same pattern: so-and-so died, date, services will be, > >survivers are,... But a memorial is a mini bio of the person written by > >friend or family and therefore very original. So, I can post family obits > >to genconnect boards, but not the accompaning memorial? Is there any > >place where it would be accepted for the memorial to be posted? Can it be > >included in a compilation of family history, if the book is not sold for > >profit? I ask because I have several memorials on various family members > >(about 50 yrs ago) that help to make these people *alive* & I really want > >to share them. > > > >thanks for any feed-back. > >christine > >_________________________________________________________________ > >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > > > > >==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== > >Check out the new communities at RootsWeb > >http://www.communities.rootsweb.com/ > > > >============================== > >Create a FREE family website at MyFamily.com! > >http://www.myfamily.com/banner.asp?ID=RWLIST2 > > > > ==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== > Threaded archives at > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/COPYRIGHT-L/ > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com