Jan -- Based on a useful website at Cornell http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm it surely looks like your material would be protected by copyright. This would be the case whether you bothered to put a (c) on your site or not, as far as I can tell. The biggest issue that might potentially be raised, I guess, is whether you have contributed something of intellectual or creative value to the listing. It seems like the rule is that if you have "just" copied public records and published them, copyright protection is not likely to do much for you. (I do recognize that "just" copying public records is a much bigger deal that it sounds like -- hence the quote marks.) I'm not a lawyer, but you might want to start by contacting the owner of the website in question (you can do a "whois" to find out whom to contact) and saying that you think they have violated your copyright. That might be sufficient to get them to take your material off-line (assuming that's what your objective is) or at least credit you as the source. The next step, I think, would be to try to decide how much in terms of dollars this is worth to you. If you can put a value on it that exceeds, say $500, out of pocket expense for you to perfect your title to this work and keep it off the website in question, then you might want to talk to a lawyer -- particularly if the website owner tells you to buzz off. However, pursuing this sort of thing can get very expensive very fast, so it probably makes sense to set a dollar limit on what you're willing to spend to recover your work. Share that number with your lawyer. As somebody who republishes local history himself -- but is always EXTREMELY careful about copyrights -- I think your issue is definitely worth considering. There are way too many rip-off artists in this "industry". Sincerely, Geoff Brown www.betweenthelakes.com -----Original Message----- From: Logic [mailto:logic@buffnet.net] Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 7:15 PM To: NYERIE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYERIE] Copyright Help? Hi Gang As Most Of You Know I Have A Website Containing My Database http://www.buffnet.net/~logic/ Select Death Notices 1880 - 2004 While Googling Around I Wandered Into This Site http://www.obits.cc/obit/569.html And Found MY List Of Death Notices, Each Name Linking Not Back To My Page But To http://www.obits.cc/ On That Page A Paragraph I Am Upset With Is: "There are three kinds of supporters of this site; personal, corporate, and genealogical history groups or affiliates. All groups may have additional sites that may duplicate information found here." This Is MY Work....I Didn't Duplicate Anything...They Copied My Work!! There Is No Doubt About This Since I Decided To List The Surnames For Females By Any/ALL ie: EBERLE-MORAN-MILLER, Geraldine I Offer My Work FREE To Help People, This Obits.cc Site Is Charging People!! I Began My Work Over 5 Years Ago & My 1st Installment Is In Print Form At The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (Central) And Also At The Family History Center On Maple Rd. Can Anyone Give Me Some Insights As To What Course Of Action I Might Take? Jan ==== NYERIE Mailing List ==== To contact the List Administrator: Dick Rose <dtrose@cox.net> See the Archived Messages at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx