John, If I create a GEDCOM with my research and upload it to the Rootsweb software which displays and navigates about that tree on the web and it's copyrighted, then no one can copy that proprietary format or that software. But I can sure as heck share my family tree in any other format (GEDCOM, written up in whatever generic charts or lists, etc.) I want to -- and then those are under my copyright. And I or anyone else can access that public Rootsweb website of my posted family tree information to use for personal purposes. True, you probably cannot "sell it" or provide a service to strip all the information out of that site and then repost it with the same proprietary format and navigation even for free. But who is interested in doing that? Jim Message: 3 Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:47:20 -0400 From: Hannigan Family Research <research@hannigangenealogy.us> Subject: Re: [IRL-LIMERICK] Copyright and Sharing IFHF records To: irl-limerick@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <47E03868.7000802@hannigangenealogy.us> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Most generally speaking - James you are correct about the 'copyright' of the materials on the IFHF database. Most information that is available in the public sector if considered "public information' after 75 years. The 75 years mark is generally accepted as the end of life and the protection from privacy. With the advent of the Internet (by Al Gore) private records have lost their secracy from the Public. Most information that in older than 75 years is considered to be in the 'Public Domain." But here is the problem - if you used World Family Tree project or the Ancestry Family Tree project on Rootsweb to upload your infomation there was a disclaimer that they regained the copyright to the material on their server.The problem got to be that once you uploaded the information your lost access to the information because of copyright. My understanding - like James' - is that the format in which the data is displayed is the issue. IFHF would be free to charge a membership fee - like Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com - to recover the cost of processing the websites. However, since the Census forms are available at various sources, including on Microfilm at some local libraries and the federal government offices - these websites don't hold the copyright to the census. While the discussion might be considered mute to some people, I thought that was the reason for this discussion list. If the purpose of this discussion list is not to share information regarding the search for ancestors in County Limerick, Ireland, I must be on the wrong list. John Hannigan Florida