Hi. My current feeling, which is likely to change over time, is that I am fairly free with information to individuals, but I don't post all my information for all to see. There have been personal requests for information that I chose not to give, but it's probably been years since that happened. If somebody asks me to take down information they claim to own, I usually do, but I still keep it for myself. I don't strip copyrights off information I collect, so I publish that copyright statement along with the information. People don't need to worry that I am buying their books and making the information available to others for free. Almost without exception I don't buy personal books on cemeteries, or schools, or churches, or almost anything else for that matter. Those books are very nice, but I stay away from the problem by not buying them. That will probably change someday too. I'm surprised to see that there really doesn't appear to be any central government entity that tracks cemetery locations. That's almost too hard to believe, but appears to be the case. I often find treasure trove batches of information from government sources, and I'd like to do the same with cemeteries. Mike On Thu, 10 Apr 2008, PAJDAISYLANE@aol.com wrote: >Hi Bud & Mike, > > Bud, long time since we talked. Yes, Mike is trying to accomplish >something that should be done and be made available. It is a vast project and I >praise him for the attempt. > > Mike, I'm sure you have thought of the following, and I wonder how you >plan to handle the problem. >The problem in collecting every piece of data you can, is that you can run >into copyright problems of personally collected data. It is very difficult to >give proper credit to each person who has collected information on their own, > when you coordinate vast areas of data from a multitude of people, and then >make it available to all. Beyond possible hurt feelings of personal >gatherers, there are large groups out there that gather data and publish it as their >own for profit, with little or no credit given to those who made it available. > Some individuals copyright their work and wish to be noted for their >efforts. I am willing to share information because I didn't collect it to hide >it away in a hollow tree, but I would be upset if someone published my data as >if they were the field person collecting it, for profit and then copyrighted >it as theirs. Then I couldn't even use the data myself without the fear of >a suit. I would be interested in knowing how you plan to make the end >results of your work available without it be being taken, without acknowledgement, >by those large groups. I dislike bringing this problem into a project that >should be an enlightening enjoyment, free of such things. > > Paul