Helen Straight wrote: > you hit the nail on the head, it seems to me that if you don't want the > information used then why in the name of god did the morons put it on paper > then into PUBLIC LIBRARIES, The issue with respect to copyright is not with USE-- it's with *FAIR* use. Fair use allows one to make a SINGLE copy for one's OWN research. It does not allow one to make multiple copies, to distribute single copies to others for their research, or to copy large portions of a work. The purpose of this is to allow the author the appropriate recompense for his/her hard work. When we start duplicating copies of any copyrighted work, be it in print, audio, or video, we are in effect denying the creators of these works payment for their wares. And any time someone creates a new presentation of old facts, that new presentation is protected by copyright. After all, it took the author a lot of work to compile the information on all those ships and to put it together in a creative, readable way. 10 different authors would have done it 10 different ways, therefore the work moves from the realm of fact to the realm of creation, and the intellectual property that results belongs to the author, not to to every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a scanner. So what is appropriate sharing of information on a list like this? - It's fair to share the titles and descriptions of the contents of books. "X is a great resource for information on land and property." - It's fair to share information that we read, e.g., "I read in Smith's book that the Jones family moved to Anytown in 1873." - It's fair to do lookups and let others know whether the information they seek is in a book. Folks can then get the book from interlibrary loan and make their own copies of the material. - It's not fair to reproduce parts of books and distribute them to others. This all, of course, applies to material that is under copyright protection, not to information in the public domain and not to material too old to be protected by copyright. This still leaves considerable room for sharing information on a list such as this. So don't despair! Kathy Lenerz