Cheryl:: > If the "article I referred to" is written by a reader then great minds > think > alike because I wrote what I posted. Dick Eastman does have a post on his > blog and there are responses to his post but I haven't had time to read > them. As you can imagine, this is a major topic on the USGenWeb lists. Can you give me the link to what Dick Eastman wrote? > We have tested this Richard. They ARE doing it. We can show that they are. > I > tested it myself -- I'm the tester because I don't have an Ancestry > account. > Significant amounts of the USGenWeb archives are now on Ancestry, not a > referral link but right there on Ancestry with Ancestry banners. The > USGenWeb AB is protesting although I don't suppose it will do them a lot > of > good. The current focus is applying robot.txt to our web sites to see if > we > can stop the spidering. You know me. I am a "research skeptic." Exactly which USGebWeb mateial is invilved. Second, can you tell me if ANY previously free material at RTootsWeb - including USGenWeb files are no longer free? > The current owners of Ancestry are not the people who made the pledge to > keep Rootsweb free. Rumor has it Ancestry is up for sale again making the > people who made a pledge an even more distant memory. I don't think Ancestry has changed hands since it acquired RootsWeb, although it may not have the same principle officers. Richard

Here's where Dick announces it is now free. [It was not free originally] Note Dick is not wondering if they took from other web sites. He knows they did, personal as well as USGenWeb. Note he also points out that only today did they make it free. I don't know if it is a result of the controversy or not but I suspect it is. Whether it stays free remains to be seen. I know USGenWeb made a protest and I am sure it would have gotten into the media in a not positive for Ancestry story or three very soon. Internet Biographical Collection is Free at Ancestry.com from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter by richard@eastman.net (Dick Eastman) Ancestry.com recently introduced a new genealogy-specific web search engine, called the Internet Biographical Collection. The service looks great but created a bit of controversy amongst web site owners whose sites were being indexed and cached. Today, Ancestry.com converted the new search engine to a free service, available to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. That conversion to a free service should eliminate most of the concerns. Users must first register before using this free service, which seems like a trivial issue to me. You can read Ancestry.com's announcement at http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1785. The first announcement about the patent and the related posts are at: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/08/the-generations.html Ancestry was acquired by MyFamily.com which is what it was when it bought Rootsweb in 2000. It is now The Generations Network. There have been multiple shifts of people, companies and even locations in there. Genealogy.com is a part of Ancestry and so is Family Tree Maker.