In a message dated 1/15/2006 12:26:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, pasher@ee.net writes: To add just a bit to Joan's answer, plagiarism *is* a legal issue, but like copyright infringement, plagiarism involves claiming the ideas or words of another as your own. Straightforward transcriptions are simply "copies". The transcriber can not copyright a copy of someone else's work, and it is not illegal or unethical for someone else to copy your copy of public domain material. However, a serious researcher will always acknowledge the original transcriber. First, it is courteous to acknowledge the time, money, and/or effort expended. But for purposes of scholarship, a competent researcher recognizes that most transcriptions contain errors. Old handwriting may be difficult to read. Newspaper type setting may result in a lower case RN (rn) looking like M (m). Typos are more frequent than we would like to admint. [ed. note: I didn't mistype "admit" on purpose, but since I did, I left it as a perfect example of how errors can creep in <g>). Sometimes, our brains or fingers simply short-circuit and type 1981 instead of 1781. Assert your copyright for the photographs you took, but I'm afraid expecting credit for the rest will be largely wishful thinking. Pat Thank you, Pat, for these fine words. You have been so helpful. We understand!