Reguarding the copywrite laws I have this question. My father-in-law recently died. I was with my mother-in-law at the funeral home where we wrote the obit the furnal home secretary typed up what we wrote we then paid for it to be published. It was published word for word what we wrote so who owns this copywrite? A lot of papers now have obits paid for to be published and if what is writen is exactly what the family wrote then that copywrite should by all rights belong to that family not the newspapaer. love fern genealogy is my hobby......crafts are my life _________________________________________________________________ Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/

Fern, I work for a phone directory company. These issues are challenged all the time. Copywrite belongs to the publisher in our case. Even though the customer provides the info. However, I don't think that newspapers -directories etc are worried about people sharing information for free. If anyone is selling this info then you have problems. I don't think a court of law would convict someone sharing a openly published obit for free. Two directory companies went to court over this issue back in the 1980s over the listings in a telephone book being copied by another directory co. It was ruled by a higher court that these phone numbers are free domain and was not owned by anyone. They could be copied. It would be hard (and expensive) for a newspaper to bring suit against anyone sharing something that was published to the public in a newspaper. ----- Original Message ----- From: "fern johnson" <dfj1girl@hotmail.com> To: <OHVINTON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 10:11 AM Subject: [OHVINTON-L] RE: OHVINTON-D Digest V05 #24 > > Reguarding the copywrite laws I have this question. My father-in-law > recently died. I was with my mother-in-law at the funeral home where we > wrote the obit the furnal home secretary typed up what we wrote we then > paid for it to be published. It was published word for word what we wrote > so who owns this copywrite? A lot of papers now have obits paid for to be > published and if what is writen is exactly what the family wrote then that > copywrite should by all rights belong to that family not the newspapaer. > > > love fern > genealogy is my hobby......crafts are my life > > _________________________________________________________________ > Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! > http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ > >