Dona, I understand what you're saying, but I don't subscribe to Ancestry. Yet, whenever I want to post to Rootsweb message boards I have to log in through Ancestry.com. All messages posted to the county mailing lists on Rootsweb are duplicated on Ancestry. So, I assume they can harvest that info and that's okay??? For example, this address is one I had to log into Ancestry to answer a posting: http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.kentucky.counties.perry/4928.1.1.2/mb.ashx Then there is the Rootsweb site where I don't have to log in: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.kentucky.counties.perry/4928/mb.ashx . I think one of the reasons this upset me so much is that when I first put my home page up one Genealogy.com it was not subject to harvesting, etc., and was done through FTM. I think that we are all being taken advantage of, and I personally don't like it. I have my info posted on WorldConnect, but I don't allow downloads of Gedcoms and have not submitted any information to Ancestry since 1999 (although people that I have shared info with have given them my data). I have never submitted or agreed to anything on OneWorldTree or WorldFamilyTree; but I'd bet they have my information. As Lynda said, maybe they'll correct all the errors that are out there, but I doubt that. The main reason is $$$$ whether the info is correct, incorrect or the efforts of people spending days, weeks, months and more to put free info up on the Internet. OK, I'm back down off my soap box. Phyllis Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:31:01 EDT From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [KYPERRY] Home Pages - FTM & Rootsweb To: [email protected], [email protected] 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. >> Last week I attempted to update my files on my home page on FTM (aka >> Rootsweb) and ran across something that disturbed me. >