Hi Bruce, Of course you are entitled to your opinion but I would like to reiterate that: They do give credit to FreeBMD and they have the trsnacribers submitter ids on the site against the records. We specifically asked them NOT to include the emails because we did not feel that people wanted to be spammed more than they currently are by people searching FreeBMD. I am not sure what kind of other credit you were after. Clearly we could insist on them acknowledging all the individual contributors to FreeBMD by name, but I suspect that a lot of people would not like that. They are bound by the same rules as we are with the ONS in that they are not allowed, now or ever, to charge for access to FreeBD. Bruce Dancy wrote: > > Following is a letter I wrote to Ancestry.com: > > I am a transcriber to FreeBMD and have spent many hours doing this very > difficult work reading handwritten pages. I have also subscribed to your > company to use your data base. Now I understand you are using the data > transcribed on your web site and only giving credit to where the data > originated but not to the people who are doing the transcribing and most > difficult part of the job. You might be the sponsor of free BMD but it > doest give you the right to ignore the hard work that people are doing > for you financial benefit. You must remember that this is just barely 15% > of the data and if you are acting in this manner you might have difficult > suckering more people into your scheme. Thank you very much. > > This is the letter I sent to, Ancestry.com. I would like to be optimistic > as one transcriber put it It should all come right in the end. I am > afraid what will happen in the end is Ancestry.com will sell the information > after it has all been transcribed. Personally, i do not believe this will be the case .. and I do not believe that anyone would purchase such an offer given that the records are available for free. It would also be against the agreement with the ONS. > In my opinion this company does not have > the greatest ethics as demonstrated in what they have just done. Ethics is > a word in our time that is not in use in the same sentence as profit. My > question is; are we betting on the right horse? Ancestry requested a copy of the database and agreed it would only ever be free. Their marketing department may be guilty of making the most of the situation but, as a commercial Company, I suspect that is expected and I think you would be hard pushed to find other marketing depts of equivalent companies who wouldn't have done a similar press release. It is up to us to make sure that people are aware that they do not have to join to get the BMD records. Ancestry have been very good to FreeBMD and have been good sponsors. They have not yet done anything to break the agreement. Having said that, we would look for other sponsors if conditions change as would any organisation in our position. > If Ancestry.com withdraws > their financial support in the long hall where does that put FREEBMD? > Who > now does this free information belong to but Ancestry.com to use in any > fashion they wish. The information does not belong to Ancestry.com to do with as they wish. They must comply with the conditions. > Maybe we should be doing this work for the FHC or GRO > and let them be the managers. > Is this action the true colors of > Ancestry.com? Unless I can be convinced otherwise my free transcribing days > are over for Ancestry.com It is the true colours of a commercial organisation. FHCs and the ONS have had the opportunity but are more interested in the actual birth records. The LDS have been aware of the project from the start and we have spoken to them. They have other priorities and so decided not to form syndicates but they were very welcome to be involved. I hope we don't lose any transcribers because Ancestry have effectively given FreeBMD another channel which helps the loading of the server out. They are continuing to support the project and scanning the film, which they purchased and own. I understand the conflict between a Free volunteer project and a commercial sponsor, but we have to face realities. I feel that they are guilty or marketing blurb, but not guilty of charging for the records, not guilty of not giving FreeBMD credit. I do hope you will stay and transcribe for us and just make sure that the message gets out that people can access the records free on Ancestry without joining. Cheers Graham > If you feel so incline to answer me please do it through the digest. Thanks. > > ==== FreeBMD-Admins Mailing List ==== > Need to get a fast answer to your transcribing problems? Go to the > Transcribers Knowledge Base at http://FreeBMD.RootsWeb.com/vol_faq.html > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com