In a message dated 05/15/2001 6:07:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, merick@cableone.net writes: << Hey list I was wondering if someone out there might be able to help with a question I have. I have been scanning some of the Genealogical books from the library (in Mississippi) and I was wondering if there would be a copyright problem if I posted the pages on the internet as is with the title page and index pages (whole book) and such for people to look at and try to locate there relatives. I obivously don't want to step on anyones toes, but I hate to not have this information out to the public. Some of these books were writen over 20 or more years. >> Well, I found some information at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/library/faq.html I have pasted a small part of it here: "What is a work in the public domain? A work in the public domain can be copied freely by anyone. Such works include those of the U.S. Government and works for which the copyright has expired. Generally, for works created after 1978, the copyright lasts for fifty years beyond the life of the author. Works created before, but not published before, 1978 have special rules. For works created and first published between 1950 and 1978 the copyright lasts 75 years. For works created and first published before 1950, it lasts for 28 years but could have been renewed for another 28 years. When planning a project, start by identifying works in the public domain that can be reused in the new work. Request permissions for materials not in the public domain early in the project. It is easier to redesign a project in the beginning stages if you discover that permission to copy cannot be obtained for certain images or sounds. What is fair use? Fair use provisions of the copyright law allow for limited copying or distribution of published works without the author's permission in some cases. Examples of fair use of copyrighted materials include quotation of excerpts in a review or critique, or copying of a small part of a work by a teacher or student to illustrate a lesson. New issues about fair use have arisen with the increased use of the Internet. At the time of publication, a bill is pending in Congress concerning whether fair use provisions will be extended to appropriate users/uses of copyrighted Internet materials. When is copying is allowed by fair use provisions of the law? There are no explicit, predefined, legal specifications of how much and when one can copy, but there are guidelines for fair use. Each case of copying must be evaluated according to four factors: * The purpose and nature of the use--If the copy is used for teaching at a nonprofit institution, distributed without charge, and made by a teacher or students acting individually, then the copy is more likely to be considered as fair use. In addition, an interpretation of fair use is more likely if the copy was made spontaneously, for temporary use, not as part of an "anthology," and not as an institutional requirement or suggestion. * The nature of the copyrighted work--With multimedia material there are different standards and permissions for different media: a digitized photo from a National Geographic, a video clip from Jaws, and an audio selection from Peter Gabriel's CD would be treated differently--the selections are not treated as equivalent chunks of digital data. * The nature and substantiality of the material used--In general, when other criteria are met, the copying of extracts that are "not substantial in length" when compared to the whole of which they are part may be considered fair use. * The effect of use on the potential market for or value of the work--In general, any use that supplants or diminishes the normal market for the original work is considered an infringement, but a use does not have to have an effect on the market to be an infringement. This page goes on to explain how to refer to the copyright. I am not sure I can tell you what this all means to you!!! DeeDee