Hi, All: Please excuse me for piping up on this issue. I've been on this list a while, though I haven't participated as of yet. I saw the discussion over the question of copyright, and thought I would chime in, though Deb Christensen's email was very good. This website might be helpful. It mainly talks about copyright as it pertains to genealogy, but could clear up a few questions. http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/14_cpyrt.html I always find myself a little torn on this issue. I'm a writer (fiction novels) and have had my work stolen, altered, and reproduced for distribution ... not on a grand scale, but enough to appreciate that we have copyright laws. Yet when it comes to genealogical research, or other research that I do, I appreciate being able to easily share source information. One thing I don't recall if it was mentioned, that while an author's work is copyrighted as soon as the 'ink hits the paper' you cannot copyright facts. In a genealogical work, the author of the work's copyright extends to how the facts are presented, not to the facts themselves. So, doing look-ups and passing along factual information is perfectly acceptable, but technically, reproducing the pages for distribution is not. However, in my opinion, it's doubtful if anyone would be horribly upset if copies of pages were made and sent to others. But if those same pages were shared in a manner that made them publicly accessible; such as, posted on a website, or on a mail list that kept archives (as this one does) -- it could be a different story. That puts the reproduction in the public domain. And just as a disclaimer, I'm not a legal authority on this subject. Julia Portland, Oregon JuliaL1957@aol.com SURNAMES: Baker, Baldwin, Beach, Bearman/Berman/Bereman, Beckwith, Blackorby/Blackaby/Blackeby, Brown, Burr, Dahl, Davis/Davies, Grammage, Holt, Lee, Milasich/Milasic, Moore, Parker, Peck, Platt, Pritchard, Ransier/Rancier, Read, Royce, Schroeter, Sell/Selle, Sims, Stewart/Stuart, Tennant, Tyler, Vrancovich/Vrankovic, Vranizan/Vragnizan, Watson, Way, Whitlock, Wilhelm, Wood, Woodworth