I highly advise anyone to consult an attorney before releasing ANY rights to any of their work.  At the least, read the agreement and see what your rights are before deciding. I am not a lawyer but I will share my opinion. (not to be mistaken for legal advise) First I would read any agreement very carefully.  If I didn't understand a part of it I would not agree. I would guess that if you give up copyright rights to FTM, unless otherwise agreed, you would NOT be allowed to distribute copies of your work without FTM permission. I don't know about FTM, but I hear that if you submit work to the Mormon database you are allowed to distribute work you submitted for free, but you may not sell it. Either way, I would not agree to release ANY rights without understanding what I was doing.  That may mean getting a lawyer to interpret the agreement for me. Hope this helps Buck -----Original Message----- From: Linda <hill@ctelcom.net> To: GenTips-L@rootsweb.com <GenTips-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Thursday, June 18, 1998 9:59 AM Subject: FTM vs. Copyright >I would like my fellow genealogist advice.  I have FTM 4.0, I have >researched (8) brarnches of my family line, witch include a little over >6,000 names  and documents in my database.  As you know this is a lot of >time, work and expense. >My FTM program keeps asking me to submit my work.   However, I have noticed, >that if I do submit to them, they claim the copyright to what I submitted. >At this point I can't bring myself to give up the copyright to years of >expensive, hard work.  I fell like their going to put my work on a disk and >sell it to others.  When I would gladly give copies of my work to interested >parties. >Does it mean that my work is no longer mine? >Am I missing the point? >Linda hill@ctelcom.net > > >==== GenTips Mailing List ==== >To contact the GenTips list owner, use converse@alltel.net > > > >