With your permission, madam administrator, the information provided from American sources is not entirely pertinent to Canada, and I would advise anyone wishing to verify their claim to copyright to check: http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/info/act-e.html#rid-33296 The first major difference between Canadian and US copyright law, is that copyright exists for a creator in Canada for the life of the creator plus 50 calendar years after the year of death, not 70 years as in the US. As others have suggested on separate posts with regard to this issue, if you wish to claim copyright and do not want others to copy what you consider to be your work, do NOT place it on the internet, there are no legal protections for this unless you can identify the person copying the work.., This of course can also occur if someone publishes your work on the internet without your permission. I ran into this problem with my first book "Ketchum's Folly," when I found a person in the US had published sections of my book on their web site verbatim without crediting me for the original research. Your claim to copyright is only as valid as your will to enforce that claim by legal actuon, and in that case I could not identify the person, nor could I obliged the ISP to identify them. Under Canadian law it is not a violation of copyright to copy someone's work if it is intended for personal use and study, or for critique and review, and when such work is copied, proper credit for the work and the creator must be givem. Copies must also be destroyed once the period of study has concluded, and can not be resold, but the law does not state how long that period of study shall be. And, the error seen so often occurring with those not fully familiar with copyright law,you CANNOT copyright a copy, especially if the material falls within the public domain (the life of the creator plus 50 years). This is a very complex issue, and is currently being reviewed by Parliament, since the digital age has presented a host of new and unforesen issues. Jay Underwood Elmsdale NS > > From: List Admin <charlottecountynb@yahoo.com> > Date: 2007/05/02 Wed AM 10:45:00 EDT > To: Tammy Brazeau <brazeaut@sympatico.ca>, newbrunswick@rootsweb.com > Subject: [ NB ] Ethics in Genealogy > > Hi Tammy & Listers... > About every 6 months or so, someone on this list will bring up the > subject of "copying family trees". > Below you will find two articles on the topic that have been previously > published in RootsWeb Review. > > After reading these articles, please visit the Ethics in Genealogy > Mailing List web page. This mailing list is hosted by Roots Web and > there you may sign up and continue discussion of this topic. > > Thanks, Marilyn Strout > NB List Admin > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > Previously published in RootsWeb Review: 30 November 2005, Vol. 8, No. 48. > > > >From Railfare-DC Books: http://www.railfare.net/From%20Folly%20to%20Fortune.html http://railfare.net/builtforwar.html Visit the Nova Scotia Railway Hall of Fame: http://www.nsrwyhalloffame.com/ Visit the Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society: http://novascotiarailwayheritage.com/