The message we were sent from Rootsweb also contained a file to be downloaded. I am re-sending their message which includes this downloaded portion. Rather than clarify the situation, all it does is add confusion and ambiguity to their opinions about "intellectual property" and what can and cannot be shared. The next to last paragraph is an eye-opener. MISSING LINKS: RootsWeb's Genealogy Journal Vol. 4, No. 39, 22 September 1999 Circulation: 360,899+ (c) 1996-99 Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley Editor-at-Fault: Julia M. Case Co-Editor-to-Blame: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG CONTENTS: Welding Links: Dark Side of the Internet; Swedish Roots: A Genealogy Find in the Archives of the Emigrant House in Vaxjo; Web Links; Successful Links: Chance Meeting; Letters to the Editors; Humor; Reprint Policy; Call for Articles; Back Issues; How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe; Somebody's Links (an occasional supplement that will be sent separately) * * * * * 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 infringement. Obtain the author's permission first -- you might be surprised at how gracious most authors are. Broderbund, one of the largest producers of genealogical CDs, clearly notes in all of its CD booklets that it considers the following wholesale sharing a copyright violation: o Systematically making a CD freely available to more than one person at a time. o Systematically make large parts of a CD's contents freely available to others. o Uploading all or part of a CD's contents onto an electronic bulletin board. o Circulating a printout taken straight off the CD. The USGenWeb Project offers four "golden rules of copyright" at http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/copyright.html>: o Materials older than 1923 are absolutely safe. (They are in the public domain.) o Relaying FACTS is OK. (This does not mean copying.) o If the use of material created by someone else diminishes the market value of that person's work, then the copyright has been violated. o Getting written (not e-mail) permission from the author/publisher is the surest way to ensure that you are not violating copyright law. So what is copyrightable? Some like to argue that genealogy is just facts, and facts can not be copyrighted or that the information came from public records and therefore can not be copyrighted. It is true that original public records in the U.S. cannot be copyrighted, but a compilation of them can be. The law recognizes the right of transcribers and compilers to be compensated and have their work protected. If you don't think this is work, transcribe some 17th-century Virginia court records or decipher some 19th-century ship passenger lists. Accumulated genealogical information, to the extent that it is an expression, can be protected by copyright, but the actual facts in the information cannot be protected. If authors quit compiling records and writing books because of copyright infringements, what will happen to genealogy? It is true that the basic facts about your ancestors -- name, birth date and place, spouse, date and place of the marriage, death date and place, are not copyrightable. However, adding any kind of narration to the basic genealogical facts gives rise to a copyright in the creative portion of the work. See Gary B. Hoffman's article "Who Owns Genealogy? Cousins and Copyrights" <http://www.genealogy.com/14_cpyrt.html>. Does living far from genealogical repositories, having a physical limitation, being a certain age, or being in reduced circumstances entitle us to any special privileges of copying or using someone's material? Is it ever right to take anything that belongs to someone else? Would your ancestors be proud of your answers and your actions? For more information about copyright issues see: 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained by Brad Templeton. <http://www.templetons.com/brad//copymyths.html> The United States Copyright Office <http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/>