There was an interesting article in today's issue of Rootsweb Review, weekly newsletter issued for free by Rootsweb.com. It concerns Copyright Laws and its importance in the genealogy field, and gives some guidelines for copyrighted material. I'm sure many of us have been unsure about just what data can be used in certain contexts, and I think that this article was a good primer. Here is part of it: As the Internet has developed, individuals have begun to become publishers and authors in increasing numbers, especially in the genealogy field. This is good because it allows the dissemination of information from sometimes obscure sources to the entire world. But along with this I have noticed a trend toward "false copyright" and I think it deserves some attention. False copyright is when a person inserts a copyright notice in a published work without having the legal right to do so. An example would be where a person has transcribed an obituary from an old newspaper and then inserted a copyright notice -- I have seen this on some Websites and in fact there is a general notice by the USGenWeb claiming that obituaries published there are copyrighted and cannot be used for "commercial purposes." The key components of copyright law are (a) originality, (b) time, and (c) ownership. To read the entire article go to: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2005/1130.txt Deloris Williams