On 30 Jun at 2:39, Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote: > On Sat, 29 Jun 2013 22:27:41 +0100, Richard Smith > <richard@ex-parrot.com> wrote: > > > To a large extent, we, the more experienced part of genealogical > > community, have allowed this to happen because we've unintentionally > > created an environment where only a company with a lot of money can > > compete. What do I mean by this? Over the years, enthusiastic > > genealogists have gone to huge efforts to transcribe all sorts of > > records, but particularly parish registers. Why, you might ask, > > hasn't someone taken these and built a decent website for searching > > them? Technically it wouldn't be at all difficult. The problem is a > > legal one. All these transcripts are generally copyright, and are > > often encumbered with highly restrictive licensing restrictions. > > > > Take the various online parish clerks websites. The one I most > > frequently use says "No person or organisation may publish this data > > without express written permission." The copyright is held by the > > original transcribers, some of whom, it's reasonable to suppose, are > > now dead, and therefore I doubt that legally, the OPC maintainers > > could grant permission for someone to reproduce these if they > > wished. (On the odd occasion I've contributed, I've never been > > asked to give them the right to do that.) Or look at the FreeREG > > project, which is maintained by a charity. "Data extracted from > > FreeREG must not be reproduced in any form." At least in that case, > > copyright is (if their website is correct) assigned to the FreeBMD > > trustees. > > I suspect that that copyright restriction was aimed at preventing > companies with a lot of money reproducing the transcriptions and then > charging people to view them. I wonder if all these copyright restrictions are valid? Anyone can copy the data and republish it. But what is also needed is a refilming of many parish registers with higher definition and in colour. And then retranscribing. I shudder to think of the cost of all this. I know FreeREG is making a determined effort to address all this but there is no sign that they will be able to link the data to scans of the original documents; in FreeBMD they have successfully linked to the scans of the GRO index pages. Perhaps all Family History and Genealogy Societies should be campaigning for funds for one Grand National Parish Register database, complete with scans of the originals? -- Tim Powys-Lybbe tim@powys.org for a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org/

"Tim Powys-Lybbe" <tim@powys.org> wrote in message news:mpro.mp78vu332w85j0l7i.tim@powys.org... > > Perhaps all Family History and Genealogy Societies should be campaigning > for funds for one Grand National Parish Register database, complete with > scans of the originals? It can't happen while Ancestry and FMP have deals with Archives.

On 30/06/13 10:26, Tim Powys-Lybbe wrote: > I wonder if all these copyright restrictions are valid? Anyone can copy > the data and republish it. That may be true in the US and probably used to be true here in the UK, but it isn't any longer. (Caveat emptor: IANAL.) A large database isn't usually subject to copyright for the simple reason that you cannot copyright facts. However, EU countries now have something called database rights which are similar to copyright, but not actually copyright. I'm pretty sure that a parish register transcript would be subject to database right (although they only last 15 years). The other danger is that, irrespective of whether the content is subject to copyright and/or database rights, if the site is subject to terms and conditions, failure to follow them is (effectively) a breach of contract. And (according to NLA v. Meltwater) that means the temporary copy of a web page that your browser makes while rendering the site is a copyright violation. Even if the transcripts' data itself is not copyright, the surround website will almost certainly be. So, unfortunately, I suspect the restrictions are basically valid. Richard