On Saturday, August 5, 2000, Carolyn Graham <cragra@hotmail.com> wrote: > But isn't getting a look-up somewhat like going to the library and either > copying in long hand or photo-copying those pages you need? There is a distinction, having to do with the number of parties involved: you (#1) making copies of pages from an author's work (#2) for your personal research (#1, again) is specifically acceptable in copyright law as "fair use". You (#1) making copies of pages from an author's work (#2) for someone else (#3) is not fair use. The basic reason is that the latter, if repeated over and over, can extensively cut into an author's sales of the work. By limiting the results of copying to the copier, a "happy medium" is established. Another "happy medium" of fair use has to do with the amount/"importance" of material that is copied, as part of a larger work you are creating. Specifically, you can quote another's work within your own work -- up to a point. That point is usually defined in the courts based on how much monetary damage the author can establish. An occasional look-up for someone from a book is not going to result in a lawsuit. But I sometimes wonder about people who are copying information about a large number of families from some reference work, and publishing it as is on a mailing list, usually with little or no commentary. I think the author would have the right to sue, though it might not be worth the effort. A third aspect of this is that information itself cannot be copyrighted, only its presentation can. So you can take information from a book or CD and put it in your own words, and it won't be a copyright violation. But of course this takes more effort and is thereby self-limiting. (I always do this anyway when providing a look-up.) Finally, public records are not copyrightable. So if the book in question is merely duplicating public records in the same format, then you can copy away. You may be cutting into the author's sales that way, but it's not like they did all the work themselves. S R C A cott obert ranston nderson phssra@physics.emory.edu Administrator, {C{offield,ollosky,ranston,ummins},OHGuerns}-L@RootsWeb.com USGenWeb Coordinator, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/oh/county/guernsey/