The subject of copyright on the information we are discussing is an interesting topic in and of itself: The civil records cannot be copyrighted as they are a matter of public record. I doubt the church records can be copyrighted either. I would assume if they had been, you all would be able to obtain a copy of the registered copyright filed with the appropriate governmental agency in the Republic of Ireland. Since the majority of the records we are talking were recorded in church registers when the Republic was actually part of the British empire, the records may actually belong to England. Or, they may belong to the Vatican in the case of the RC records. Whose records are they - a very good question indeed. Info on copyright laws in the US can be found at: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wnp However, this is their business and a major improvement over the search fees the heritage centers were charging. Work with them, not against them! Deborah -----Original Message----- From: littlehouseantiques@att.net To: irl-limerick@rootsweb.com Sent: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 4:21 pm Subject: [IRL-LIMERICK] FW: Question regarding your posted Copyright Notice Dear List, It occurred to me that since it the IFHF's posted Copyright Notice says, "You may not otherwise copy, modify, or distribute the contents of these pages, or publish, broadcast, transmit, or otherwise distribute any portion of this site without the express written authorization of the Irish Family History Foundation" that technically speaking this means that IF you pay for records for them AND you include the information in a personal family tree and quote them as your source AND you happen to publish this information as part of a personal family tree in a personal family web site ONLINE that you will, in fact, be violating their copyright. This seems a little ridiculous to me, so just out of curiosity I've written to them to ask what their stance on this issue is. Copy of my email appended below. Anybody care to place a wager on whether or not I'll receive a response? Kathy Rhodes -------------- Forwarded Message: -------------- From: littlehouseantiques@att.net To: info@ifhf.ie Subject: Question regarding your posted Copyright Notice Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:09:23 +0000 Irish Family History Foundation Karel Kiely, Secretary e-mail: info@ifhf.ie Irish Family History Foundation, c/o Riverbank, Main St., Newbridge, Co. Kildare Ireland Dear Ms. Kiely, I have a question regarding your posted copyright notice. If I pay for and receive marriage, birth, or death information from your site; may I reference the information obtained in a personal family tree that I have compiled and which I publish online at a personal family web site? Will I be violating your copyright if I do this? Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Kathy L. Rhodes 1760 Valley Green Road ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-LIMERICK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message