Good evening everyone. I've started a reply to Margo's message several times and each time I've deleted it before sending. I happen to agree with Myra Gormley. Too often, people take information from web sites and other published sources without any consideration of the person who "published" that information. It doesn't matter if it is a transcription of public records, or an original work. Too often no source is given. It is not only plagiarism, it is also very bad genealogy!!! I cannot copyright a transcription of a public record, but can copyright my notes thereto and any other "original" information I append to the transcription. Technically, a genealogy and/or family history (there is a difference you know), is more than a compilation of facts. There is the matter of the "interpretation" of those facts that results in the genealogy or family history. If that "interpretation" is not intellectual property, then you might as well throw all the copyright laws in the toilet and just let everyone do as they wish without regard to others. The result would be total chaos. All histories are interpretations of facts (or in some cases - fancy). It is the interpretation of those facts which is copyrighted. Now if proprietary material (collections of letters, diaries, notebooks, etc.) is used, if the author doesn't have permission from the proprietor of that material, the author is committing copyright infringement and plagiarism. I resent having people using material that I've spent decades compiling without so much as a reference that I did the compilation. The mere fact that I publish it to the world wide web on a web page does not give someone the right to take it lock stock and barrel and put it up on their own web page as their own work! If I wish to share information with someone, I will do so and will generally tell them that they may use it. If I don't want them to use the information, I don't send it or I ask them to refrain from publishing the information (I could be wrong you know). We as genealogists walk a fine line. On one hand we use material that others have sent to us (hopefully we give them full credit for that material) and we copy facts and information from published public records as well as from the originals. We also use collections of letters, diaries and other materials which are not public record and these materials are often protected by copyright or at least by the rules and procedures of the depository for the materials. If you want to lose your research rights really fast, just publish something from a proprietary collection and see if the repository lets you back in again. What it all boils down to is common courtesy. If you copy something from someone else's material or from a published record, give credit where credit is due and hopefully have the common decency to ask permission to use the material. If you buy a painting from an artist, you the right to display that painting, but you don't have the right to make copies of it. I don't know why genealogists think that can copy information without giving credit. A historian who does likewise and publishes his article or book would be strongly criticized or else hauled to court. Is Myra's article something to get upset about, yes, it is because it is very true. And perhaps you should also consider the article an admonition. If you copy indiscriminately, you will certainly get corrupted data and information, especially if it comes off the web or some of these cd's which seem to proliferate like rabbits. Now can we get back to Davenport genealogy and history? Edgar Edgar D. Byler, III Medby3@netease.net> Editor, Wayne County Historian Wayne County, Tennessee, USA Co-Coordinator Wayne County Web Page: http://www.netease.net./wayne County Co-ordinator ALHN Wayne Co., TN page http://www.netease.net/wayne/alhn Listkeeper: WALRAVEN-L@rootsweb.com BYLER-L@rootsweb.com LINVILLE-L@rootsweb.com LENOIR-L@rootsweb.com Personal Page: http://www.netease.net/members/edby3 -----Original Message----- From: MargoBelle@aol.com <MargoBelle@aol.com> To: DAVENPORT-L@rootsweb.com <DAVENPORT-L@rootsweb.com> Date: 24 September, 1999 11:58 PM Subject: [DAVENPORT] Rebuttal to Rootsweb Article >Regarding this message from Rootsweb: > >"WELDING LINKS: DARK SIDE OF THE INTERNET > >by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG <rwr-editors@rootsweb.com> > >Disguised as the nicest people on earth, many genealogists are >nevertheless thieves, plagiarists, and copyright infringers. >Some are high-tech robbers using computers, mice, and Internet >Service Providers to steal intellectual property. Some try to >hide their crimes under mantles of excuses such as: > >o I thought everything on the Internet was FREE. >o I'm just looking up information for FREE. I don't charge > people anything. >o You can't copyright facts and that's what genealogy is. >o Genealogy was meant to be shared. >o This is information about my family and I'm entitled to it. >o Reproduction of copyrighted materials was intended to keep > people from distributing information for profit. >o Authors are too greedy and should be grateful they are > getting free advertising on the Web. > >No matter how easy it is to copy from the Web, a book, or a CD, >taking another's work is wrong. Access to a great deal of >genealogical material may be free, but that does not give you a >right to copy and use someone's intellectual property -- without >his or her permission. If you offer to do lookups for others >(whether you charge or not) in books or CDs that you own, you >may be guilty of copyright infr, etc" > > > >This is a very vocal rebuttal to the previous message: > >It's a prevalent but faulty theory that the gatherers of information have now >become the OWNERS of the information. To imply that those of us who share >information with other genealogists are crooks, thieves, plagarists, robbers >and worse, is insulting to the entire genealogical community. > >Rootsweb and all the other genealogical co-ops did not write the information, >they did not create it, they do not lease, copyright or own it, and they >certainly cannot forbid the dissemination of information that they themselves >acquired from other sources. > >ALL the information contained on Rootsweb, Ancestry.com, CD's, etc. came from > public records. While they perform a needed service in gathering and >condensing the information, they did not buy it from courthouses, the Census >Bureau, authors, Civil War veterans, etc. What they did was gather it, >consolidate it, and for a fee, charge others for this service. We are paying >for the SERVICE, not the information itself. The information still exists in >the original courthouses and public records. > >I am perfectly willing to pay monthly fees or subscription fees for the >convenience of accessing information. I pay my money to Rootsweb, >Ancestry.com and several other online services. I am fortunate that I am >able to do this because many people cannot. But for you to imply that you now >OWN this information and can forbid people like me from sharing it, you are >grossly out of line and I take great offense at your statements. You are >confusing paying for the consolidation of the information with OWNING the >information. > >MargoBelle > > >==== DAVENPORT Mailing List ==== >Please Help Support RootsWeb! Learn how at >http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html > >============================== >Search the Social Security Death Index online for FREE! >http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/ >The most powerful SSDI search engine on the Internet! > >