At 08:43 PM 8/12/2018, JFlorian wrote: >If a current webmaster is willing to assume all responsibility for >copyright and living-person privacy, I don't see why Rootsweb would rather >delete accounts of probably deceased webmasters, rather than letting people >adopt the content. Judy, I can't speak for Ancestry/RootsWeb, but copyrights are not a responsibility that can be "assumed", and copyrighted contents of a web site can not be "adopted". Copyright is a personal property right and the exclusive rights of the copyright owner must be transferred in writing, and/or by operation of law such as a will or the applicable laws of intestate succession. "The ownership of a copyright may be transferred in whole or in part by any means of conveyance or by operation of law, and may be bequeathed by will or pass as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession." And while much of the content of genealogy web sites consists of facts which are public domain and can not be copyrighted, RootsWeb/Ancestry does not have staff to review every abandoned web site, page by page, to determine what is or might be copyrighted and what is not. You or I can search the Wayback Machine (archive.org) for abandoned sites/pages and copy whatever public domain material they contain, but IMO, Ancestry would be placing themselves in legal jeopardy by transferring abandoned Freepages sites to whoever wanted them. Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17) <https://www.copyright.gov/title17/> "106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works "x x x the owner of copyright under this title [Title 17, sec. 106] has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: "(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies x x x" [i.e. to publish.] Pat A.

A couple years ago, realizing my own mortality, I wrote to Rootsweb about my site(s). I was told that the site would still be there long after my no longer being able to take care of them [ I will refrain from saying forever]. Also, I could "will" them to someone by giving them the passwords if they were interested in maintaining them. There was no mention of any legal mumbo jumbo. I can't speak for anyone but myself but I cannot really "copyright" much of the material I have posted on any of my sites. The only possible copyright I might have is in how it is displayed [ the HTML coding I used ]. Now, if there is no one to maintain a site any longer about all they can "copyright" is their coding. There's no money in it. So it would be entirely doubtful that anyone would care if someone else wished to take over the site and maintain/add to it. Legally.................................... Realistically................................ Honestly, I would think it would be in the best interest of Rootsweb/Ancestry to keep those sites active on some level. If no one in my family is interested in maintaining my site(s) I would love for them to give them to someone that was passionate about keeping them alive. On 08/13/2018 09:23 AM, Pat Asher wrote: > At 08:43 PM 8/12/2018, JFlorian wrote: >> If a current webmaster is willing to assume all responsibility for >> copyright and living-person privacy, I don't see why Rootsweb would >> rather >> delete accounts of probably deceased webmasters, rather than letting >> people >> adopt the content. > > Judy, I can't speak for Ancestry/RootsWeb, but copyrights are not a > responsibility that can be "assumed", and copyrighted contents of a > web site can not be "adopted". Copyright is a personal property right > and the exclusive rights of the copyright owner must be transferred in > writing, and/or by operation of law such as a will or the applicable > laws of intestate succession. > "The ownership of a copyright may be transferred in whole or in part > by any means of conveyance or by operation of law, and may be > bequeathed by will or pass as personal property by the applicable laws > of intestate succession." > > And while much of the content of genealogy web sites consists of facts > which are public domain and can not be copyrighted, RootsWeb/Ancestry > does not have staff to review every abandoned web site, page by page, > to determine what is or might be copyrighted and what is not. You or I > can search the Wayback Machine (archive.org) for abandoned sites/pages > and copy whatever public domain material they contain, but IMO, > Ancestry would be placing themselves in legal jeopardy by transferring > abandoned Freepages sites to whoever wanted them. > > Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17) > <https://www.copyright.gov/title17/> > "106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works > "x x x the owner of copyright under this title [Title 17, sec. 106] > has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: > "(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies x x x" [i.e. to > publish.] > > > Pat A. > > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives > https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/freepages-help > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY  Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal > RootsWeb community > -- "The dog is a gentleman. I hope to go to his heaven, not man's." Mark Twain

At 11:12 AM 8/13/2018, Billie Walsh wrote: >Honestly, I would think it would be in the best interest of >Rootsweb/Ancestry to keep those sites active on some level. If no >one in my family is interested in maintaining my site(s) I would >love for them to give them to someone that was passionate about >keeping them alive. Billie, that is the crux of the matter. Ancestry's Terms & Conditions <https://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/termsandconditions> specify the rules for User Provided Content: "With respect to User Provided Content, you agree that: "You are solely responsible for your User Provided Content; "You represent and warrant that you have all the necessary RIGHTS [emphasis added] to upload or post your User Provided Content and that your User Provided Content complies with the Ancestry Community Rules; "You will provide Ancestry, upon our request, with any documentation necessary to evidence your compliance with these Terms; x x x" As a User, you can evidence your wish to RootsWeb/Ancestry for someone else to maintain your site after your passing by providing that person with the login information to your account; but if you do not and/or you have not provided for transfer of whatever copyrights you might possess via a written will or other conveyance, then the rules of intestate succession in your state apply. While Ancestry might keep a User Provided Content site online under the terms and conditions to which the original User agreed when they uploaded their content, that is a different kettle of fish from transferring ownership (and the ability to change content) to someone other than the presumed copyright owner. Pat A.

I might add that (as many of you know) the facts on our sites are not what falls under copyright, it is our editorial/design/statements/what-have-you that do. In other words, the value that we add to the facts by how we present them. And we have copyright whether or not we register our creations with the Copyright Office. Registration gives authors more recourse in case of infringements, which is not our main concern at the moment. An option for those who are still alive would be to add a statement that your work is under some sort of Creative Commons license, or that you release copyright, or something like that. Most people don't really want to release copyright during their lifetimes, but there are a range of Creative Commons licenses, and you could also state that you release your copyright after death--something like that. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or an expert on copyright, so I can't provide suitable wording. Someone might want to put this question to Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist--if her blog has not yet covered this, I'll bet she would be delighted to do a post on the topic. Karla Huebner calypsospots AT gmail.com On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 11:12 AM, Billie Walsh <bilwalsh@swbell.net> wrote: > A couple years ago, realizing my own mortality, I wrote to Rootsweb about > my site(s). I was told that the site would still be there long after my no > longer being able to take care of them [ I will refrain from saying > forever]. Also, I could "will" them to someone by giving them the passwords > if they were interested in maintaining them. There was no mention of any > legal mumbo jumbo. > > I can't speak for anyone but myself but I cannot really "copyright" much > of the material I have posted on any of my sites. The only possible > copyright I might have is in how it is displayed [ the HTML coding I used ]. > > Now, if there is no one to maintain a site any longer about all they can > "copyright" is their coding. There's no money in it. So it would be > entirely doubtful that anyone would care if someone else wished to take > over the site and maintain/add to it. > > >

On 08/14/2018 09:45 AM, Karla Huebner wrote: > An option for those who are still alive would be to add a statement that > your work is under some sort of Creative Commons license, or that you > release copyright, or something like that. Most people don't really want to > release copyright during their lifetimes, but there are a range of Creative > Commons licenses, and you could also state that you release your copyright > after death--something like that. I think you may have hit on something. I went to the Creative Commons site https://creativecommons.org/ And did some looking. I found a license that allows others to use whatever as long as it is not commercial. To my mind that seems like a reasonable limitation on my work. After all I did all this to allow others to use it in their own research. -- "The dog is a gentleman. I hope to go to his heaven, not man's." Mark Twain

I recommend that people use Creative Commons as well. Wikipedia uses it for a lot of their photos. Different people use different requirements. Anne On Tue, Aug 14, 2018 at 9:49 AM, Billie Walsh <bilwalsh@swbell.net> wrote: > On 08/14/2018 09:45 AM, Karla Huebner wrote: > >> An option for those who are still alive would be to add a statement that >> your work is under some sort of Creative Commons license, or that you >> release copyright, or something like that. Most people don't really want >> to >> release copyright during their lifetimes, but there are a range of >> Creative >> Commons licenses, and you could also state that you release your copyright >> after death--something like that. >> > > I think you may have hit on something. > > I went to the Creative Commons site > > https://creativecommons.org/ > > And did some looking. I found a license that allows others to use whatever > as long as it is not commercial. To my mind that seems like a reasonable > limitation on my work. After all I did all this to allow others to use it > in their own research. > > > -- > "The dog is a gentleman. I hope to go to his heaven, not man's." > > Mark Twain > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb. > com/listindexes/search/freepages-help > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb > community >

That's in my copyright META statement and my footer, that people can use for non-commercial purposes.