Dayna, I hesitate to get into the "copywright" fray knowing the history of this list and did not so some months back. However, you've asked some questions that probably should be addressed. Here is my take (note I am not offering legal advice or professional opinion), just summarizing what has been sent to me in the past from attorneys: e-mail is copywright protected, so are web pages it doesn't matter whether there is a note of copywright or not, although, it's probably a good idea to inform readers so. if copying is done, it falls under either "fair use" or it doesn't If not fair use, then it's a violation of copywright law. What is fair use? Well, that is often difficult to define; however, it is NOT something as simple as 20% of the document. Copying of facts alone is fair use; however, the manner of presentation of the facts may be protected (just think about history books - of course some lately are trying to be politically correct by changing facts, but I digress). Noncommercial copying is usually protected under "fair use" but note the definition for noncommercial indicates whether the copier received money for the product or the author MIGHT have been expected to receive money. Thus, it doesn't matter if you or your organization is non-profit or a commercial enterprise or whether you actually paid for something or not. Hope this clears up things a bit. Dwayne Crandall http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1949 ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Looking for a few lists to archive Author: listowners@rootsweb.com at internet-ext Date: 10/7/97 9:50 PM Thanks for your response Karen. Sounds like something I had considered for my Hancock Family Archives (bibles, wills, census, and other records). Unfortunately, most of my listmembers disagreed with me for thinking of password protecting it when I asked them what they thought of protecting our hard work. Many called me paranoid, selfish, unwilling to share, you name it....it was depressing. What do ya'll think about the copyright issue? Take care, Dayna At 06:58 PM 10/7/97 PDT, you wrote: >> 1. Would putting all those email addresses out there be heaven for >> the spam spiders to roam? > >Yes, probably, except ... the notion right now is that they'll >be password protected. For lists that want to be Private with >a capital P, only the listowner will be told what the password is, >and it will be the listowner's decision who to give it to. For lists >that don't want quite that much protection, the password will be >given on the entrance page to the archive. A human will read it, >and be able to successfully use it to proceed. A spider won't. >Spammers aren't into doing much work, so I expect they'll spider >on to elsewhere on the net and leave us alone. > >These are valid worries. But I think we can work out something >so most everyone is comfortable with the result. If anyone tries >to download ALL the messages, Brian will spot it long before they're >done and simply lock them out of RootsWeb... > >Karen > > > >