Ancestry has always been able to collect the information that is put on the web and put it on CDs and sell it. They just have to put it in a slightly different format, or when they are using names and dates, who can say they didn't pick that up off other "Public" records, and not from any of the databases. Who can prove the information came just from the database? -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Beth Adams Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 5:25 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [KYPERRY] Home Pages - FTM & Rootsweb Dona, Ancestry.com uses one database for both Rootsweb's WorldConnect and Ancestry's WorldFamilyTree. Therefore, when you upload a GEDCOM to WorldConnect, you're actually uploading to both WorldConnect and WorldFamilyTree at the same time. I know you can delete the GEDCOM on WorldConnect, but does the GEDCOM remain on WorldFamilyTree? And since Ancestry.com can sell, distribute, etc. the Family Trees in WorldFamilyTree, does that mean that they can still sell the information that was uploaded to Rootsweb WorldConnect since it shares the same database? Things are getting pretty tricky here.... Beth -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 4:31 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [KYPERRY] Home Pages - FTM & Rootsweb Phyllis, Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand the situation, FamilyTreeMaker uploads your family tree to an Ancestry.com website, not to RootsWeb. Though RootsWeb is owned by the Generations Network (owner of Ancestry), it is a free and supposedly independent entity. Submissions to its free message boards and maillists are not captured and put on Ancestry for subscription owners. Everyone can access RootsWeb sites and information for free. The recent brouhaha over Ancestry's "Biographical Collection" that used links to individual websites illustrated how upset people got over their "capture" of free information for subscribers, so Ancestry removed that whole section. The family trees that Ancestry gets control over are the ones we see as being on OneWorldTree, WorldFamilyTree, and the new public and private member trees. The old FTM websites submitted to genealogy.com are now controlled by Ancestry. FTM makes it easy to upload your file directly to Ancestry because it is owned by Ancestry, and Ancestry makes its profits this way. RootsWeb, on the other hand, has the totally free area for family trees called WorldConnect (from the RootsWeb home page, click on the "Family Trees" tab at the top). These trees still belong to you, the submitter, and should in no way be captured for sale by Ancestry. Their use contract includes this information: "User-Provided Content Portions of the Service will contain user-provided content, to which you may contribute appropriate content (the "Submitted Content") For this Content, the submitter is the owner, and RootsWeb.com is only a distributor. By submitting Submitted Content to RootsWeb.com, you grant MyFamily.com, Inc., the corporate host of the Service, a limited license to the Submitted Content to use, host, and distribute that Submitted Content and allow hosting and distribution on co-branded Services of that Submitted Content..." See RootsWeb's entire "Acceptable Use Policy" at < http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/aup.html>. Check out Ancestry's use policy, and you should see something quite different regarding who owns the rights to use, distribute, sell, etc. the information you submit. If you've already submitted a family tree to them, you generally cannot remove it or get rid of it entirely, unlike the WorldConnect trees. So it's a buyer-beware situation, and one which you should consider carefully before deciding where to place your family trees for public use. Dona In a message dated 10/22/07 7:55:11 PM, Phyllis writes: > Last week I attempted to update my files on my home page on FTM (aka > Rootsweb) and ran across something that disturbed me. ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message