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