Am I missing something here. I subscribe to and use Ancestry every day for work on several family trees. It is excellent for census data but useless for BMD. On the other hand I turn to FreeBMD when I have a real problem and the answer is not in a census form. Ancestry do not have a commercial product for BMD without access to FreeBMD FreeBMD on the other is not dependent on Ancestry. So why can't FreeBMD charge Ancestry for the COMMERCIAL use of FreeBMD. Ted

Quoting Ted Harding <ejh99@blueyonder.co.uk>: > Am I missing something here. Yes > Ancestry do not have a commercial product for BMD without access to FreeBMD Ancestry don't have a commercial product even with FreeBMD. It is a condition of their use of FreeBMD data that they provide access to it free of charge. > FreeBMD on the other is not dependent on Ancestry. Without the involvement of Ancestry, FreeBMD would have to spend a great deal more time and effort securing funding to keep the site up and running. > So why can't FreeBMD charge Ancestry for the COMMERCIAL use of FreeBMD. Use of FreeBMD data by Ancestry is governed by an agreement between both sides. This agreement includes a financial element. However.... 1) As with all commercial agreements, discussion of the full terms of that agreement in a public forum would be entirely inappropriate. 2) So far as the relationship between FreeBMD and Ancestry is not governed by commercial confidentiality, this list is not the place for such discussions (the discuss list is) Suffice it to say that our agreement with Ancestry is such as to be mutually beneficial. -- Dave Mayall ---------------------------------------------- This mail sent through http://www.ukonline.net