> Proposed Legislation Would Wreak Havoc for Genealogists and others, of course! > > A new bill before the U.S. Congress proposes to overturn one of the most fundamental concepts of the present copyright laws. If passed, facts would become copyrighted for the first time in U.S. history. > > The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (HR3261) would make it a crime for anyone to copy and redistribute a substantial portion of data collected by commercial database companies and list > publishers. At first, that sounds like a good idea. However, a bit more thought shows that nobody would be able to republish stock quotes, historical health data, sports scores, or voter lists. In fact, a lot of genealogy information could not be republished. > > If passed, Google and all the other search engines would be crippled, probably driven out of business. These are online databases that collect information, or facts, from other online sites so that the user can quickly find the information they seek. If Google and the others are not allowed to collect facts that are now copyrighted, how will they be able to index the Web for you? > > Art Brodsky, spokesman for public advocacy group Public Knowledge, says the bill would let anyone drop a fact into a database or a collection of materials and claim monopoly rights to it. This would contradict the core principle of the Copyright Act, which states that mere information and > ideas cannot be protected works. > > Let's say that a commercial genealogy service such as Ancestry.com or OneGreatFamily.com publishes the fact that your great-great-grandparents had a child named John. Once that "fact" has been published by any commercial service, that original publisher would hold the copyright on the > fact, and no one else would be allowed to publish it again. The Family History Library, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Genealogical Publishing Company, and others would be prohibited from publishing that information again in any of their online or printed works. > In fact, private individuals would similarly be barred from publishing the information in their own derivative works. If a commercial site publishes a fact about your ancestors, you would not be able to place that fact on your own Web site or in any book or report that you give to others. > > The language in this proposed legislation contradicts the core principle of the present copyright acts, which state that mere information and ideas cannot be protected works. > > You can read more about this proposed legislation in Wired News at > http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,62500,00.html > >

HR3261 has been amended somewhat while in committee. Here is the current wording of interest to us as genealogists. If you wish to make your voice heard on the legislation find your legislator on this listing http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html /SEC. 4. PERMITTED ACTS./ / (a) INDEPENDENTLY GENERATED OR GATHERED INFORMATION- This Act shall not restrict any person from--/ / (1) independently generating or gathering information obtained by means other than extracting it from a database generated, gathered, or maintained by another person; and/ / (2) making that information available in commerce./ / (b) ACTS OF MAKING AVAILABLE IN COMMERCE BY NONPROFIT SCIENTIFIC OR RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS- Subject to section 9, the making available in commerce of a substantial part of a database by a nonprofit scientific or research institution, including an employee or agent of such institution acting within the scope of such employment or agency, for nonprofit scientific or research purposes shall not be prohibited by section 3 if the court determines that the making available in commerce of the information in the database is reasonable under the circumstances, taking into consideration the customary practices associated with such uses of such database by nonprofit scientific or research institutions and other factors that the court determines relevant./ / (c) HYPERLINKING- Nothing in this Act shall restrict the act of hyperlinking of one online location to another or the providing of a reference or pointer (including such reference or pointer in a directory or index) to a database./ / (d) NEWS REPORTING- Nothing in this Act shall restrict any person from making available in commerce information for the primary purpose of news reporting, including news and sports gathering, dissemination, and comment, unless the information is time sensitive and has been gathered by a news reporting entity, and making available in commerce the information is part of a consistent pattern engaged in for the purpose of direct competition. /