>snip >What's the difference between someone doing a lookup for you from a book >they have in their personal library, looking up a fact or story from a >library book at the public library, and sending it to someone to use in >their personal family genealogy or history? Is there a difference between >me looking the information up in a book on a bookshelf and copying the >information down, and what Nancy was doing for us? Since the information >comes from public records anyway, and she is not plaguerizing the >published material by using it as her own, word for word, is she really >violating the copyright? snip Copying for personal non profit use is generally permitted by the copyright owner. This would be copying a page out of a book in a library or at a newspaper office copying the obituary., sharing that with one person via email or talk etc is accepted as something that will happen. Where copyright owners get sensitive is taking their value added work, information extracted from public records or newspapers and published, and sharing in broad brush format such as mailing lists, and bulletin boards. The difference between you copying a piece of information for you personal use and sharing information on a mailing list or a bulletin board both for non profit is scale of use and who owns the information in the book. Public records are public, but someone's transcription of a public record belongs to the transcriber. Is that any clearer? I have seen statement in books in libraries which say that copying of these contents for any use is not permitted, others which state copying for personal non profit use is allowed. Sticky subject. Deborah Byrd