In a message dated 5/5/2004 9:32:14 PM Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > A lady who does research in Alabama records said that she was reminded by a librarian at the Family History Center that the records she ordered could not be copied (I suppose except by hand) because LDS held the copyright. Because of this, the LDS filmed and copyrighted records in the Alabama Archives could not be copied in any media. I assume she knows what she is talking about. < She does NOT know what she is talking about. The copyright laws only apply to Books that they have on microfilm. They allow copies of them, also, but state that the "Entire" book can't be copied or any part for sale or distribution. All the court documents can be copied and, after being filmed, the original documents are left where they were found. Microfilming doesn't take them away from the residents of the original location, it makes the films available to "EVERYONE" who lives near a LDS family history library. Reading and copying from the microfilm is so much easier than reading from the old large volumes and the filming makes it unnecessary for the old documents to be handled over and over again, which will eventually destroy them. Anyone who hasn't been to a LDS Family History Center, hasn't even begun to do genealogy research. My opinion. Julia French Wood

Thanks, Julia, for the good info. Martha -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 9:42 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MSATTALA] Old record preservation In a message dated 5/5/2004 9:32:14 PM Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > A lady who does research in Alabama records said that she was reminded by a librarian at the Family History Center that the records she ordered could not be copied (I suppose except by hand) because LDS held the copyright. Because of this, the LDS filmed and copyrighted records in the Alabama Archives could not be copied in any media. I assume she knows what she is talking about. < She does NOT know what she is talking about. The copyright laws only apply to Books that they have on microfilm. They allow copies of them, also, but state that the "Entire" book can't be copied or any part for sale or distribution. All the court documents can be copied and, after being filmed, the original documents are left where they were found. Microfilming doesn't take them away from the residents of the original location, it makes the films available to "EVERYONE" who lives near a LDS family history library. Reading and copying from the microfilm is so much easier than reading from the old large volumes and the filming makes it unnecessary for the old documents to be handled over and over again, which will eventually destroy them. Anyone who hasn't been to a LDS Family History Center, hasn't even begun to do genealogy research. My opinion. Julia French Wood ==== MSATTALA Mailing List ==== Have you visited the Attala Historical Society web site? The URL is http://www.rootsweb.com/~msahs/ Now would be a good time to support the Attala Historical Society!