I agree. I also think that if you share your information with someone (email/snail mail) you have to be prepared that its going to travel on. Is this right? No. Unfortunately it has been proven time and again, that some people can't be trusted. Penny was being a very kind person to share her information, and its terrible that this person violated her trust. Whether she could win an infringement suit, I don't think so, but that's just my opinion based on what I know of copyright law. Just because all that person had to do was change some things and add their own information. Rene' -------Original Message------- From: Clifford Hayes Date: 03/20/04 06:15:41 To: NYOTSEGO-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYOTSEGO] Lists and copyrights It is a delight to me to see so much interest in HR 3261- and that is a national bill, not just for one or a few states. There are a lot of opinions on what is copyright and what is not. Also, it has been expressed that much in genealogy is in the public domain. Another opinion is that you cannot copy such information if it is in the originator's format. For genealogists, most of us use a publicly purchased format, including PAF and so many others What do you think it means (or should mean) if A copies the data from B's list but puts in in the format of another program? The basic data is the same, name, birth, death, marriage. And how do you make attribution to an original author? Examples in my own case: I had information on my ancestors, partly from my great grandfather's Bible. That was his data (before this all came into question). I then found further ancestors on a web site that did attribute the author. My query as to how to reach the author went unanswered. To further complicate the matter, I then found a lot of additional information on Rootsweb in one site and it was further substantiated by similar data in another Rootsweb site. Since I am placing this data in my PAF file (which is a different format from the others), 1. How do I attribute the data (do I do it for each person, one at a time, and if so, how?) or make a comment somewhere that I took data from these sources. I have no problem with making the attributions - in fact, I feel it is incumbent on me to do so in order that others can go to my sources to verify my accuracy in gathering the data. I feel that anyone that publishes their data on the internet does do in the interest of helping others gather data that is pertinent to their family and them without the need for attribution. To me that is different than taking an entire work or a major portion of it and republishing under someone else's name. Any comments, pro or con? Cliff Hayes ==== NYOTSEGO Mailing List ==== To unsubscribe from this list in list mode send an email with the word, unsubscribe,in the subject field & body of the message to the following address: NYOtsego-l-request@rootsweb.com ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237