Joan, No, most family tree gedcoms don't contain copyrightable information. Some of them do, and those get copied, too. Some people actually include little narratives. Little phrases from some of these narratives can be typed into Google with quotation marks surrounding them and will pop up all over the Internet. Not that it would be worth a lawsuit, but it does go on ... Not just on Rootsweb, but all over. Debbie --- Debbie- Submitters to Rootsweb's WorldConnect program are expected to abide by the RootsWeb AUP which requires that you submit only your own work or public domain information or that you have permission to post if you are posting someone else's work. RootsWeb is responsive to complaints by copyright holders if they can prove there has been infringement. However, most family trees do not contain anything that is copyrightable. Facts cannot be copyrighted and no one owns them--anyone is free to use names, dates, and places. Joan ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour

Debbie <RoverLSmith@aol.com> wrote: > No, most family tree gedcoms don't contain copyrightable information. Some > of them do, and those get copied, too. Some people actually include little > narratives. Little phrases from some of these narratives can be typed > into > Google with quotation marks surrounding them and will pop up all over the > Internet. Not that it would be worth a lawsuit, but it does go on ... Not > just on > Rootsweb, but all over. What we have here, I'm afraid, are some chickens coming home to roost. Some folks who will remain nameless think that all genealogical material that is on the Internet should be free. They preach that every time the name Ancestry.com comes up. One obvious consequence of that is that everyone starts to actually believe it. Oh - there's something of interest about my ancestor. Cut. Paste. Looks good. I guess I'll post it. After all, if it's on the Net, it's free, isn't it? Richard