Does anyone have any input on this statement? Ford County, Il volunteer ----- Original Message ----- From: "E.A. Kaspar" <E-Kaspar@wiu.edu> To: <VAHALIFA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 10:19 AM Subject: [VAHALIFA] A possible anti-genealogists copyright law? > FYI, I received this and am most concerned since this interpretation of > the law would be most detrimental for genealogists. > > E. Kaspar > > ******************************************** > FROM: Kristy Gravlin <hannah@teleport.com> > > For those who want to read the actual legislative bill which was > submitted > to the House Judiciary Committee regarding copyright laws, you can > access > this URL PDF file: > > (URLs not allowed on this site). > > The core of the proposed law can be found in Section 3: > > Any person who makes available in commerce to others a quantitatively > substantial part of the information in a database generated, gathered, > or > maintained by another person, knowing that such making available in > commerce > is without the authorization of that person (including a successor in > interest) or that person's licensee, when acting within the scope of its > > license, shall be liable for the remedies set forth in Section 7... > > "In plain English, what this law is saying is that copyright protections > > will be extended to databases, regardless of whether the information > contained within those databases is, itself, copyrightable. Collections > of > information which is, itself, unprotected (pricing information, sports > scores, weather data, etc.) will become protected. In a sense, this law > allows somebody who compiles a database to own the facts found therein." > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > My understanding of this bill is such that when I post information on > the > internet about my family's surname, ancestors and descendants alike, it > will > become the property of large databases who will receive the information > via > their technology. > > Thus I would no longer own MY information of MY family. If I wanted to > write a family history book based on my lineage, then I would have to > pay that "owner" > copyright royalties for MY own information. This is extremely unfair. > > -Kathleen > > > > > > > ==== VAHALIFA Mailing List ==== > Address HALIFAX County List messages > to: VAHalifa-L@rootsweb.com > WATCH YOUR SUBJECT LINES TOO! > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > > >