At 08:54 PM 8/19/99 +0800, you wrote: >Anne, >Asking the copyright owner for permission to re-publish a record is very >much a common courtesy. The major reason for only granting permission in >microfiche format (or booklet ) is primarily to ensure that due >acknowledgment is given. Their other conditions are not all irksome. David, I agree with you, where someone holds a copyright the correct thing to do is ask for reprint permission and to respect their ownership rights. Here in the US, the government does not claim a copyright in census records; they are in the public domain; it's not necessary to ask permission to reprint in any form. I object to the copyright claim to those records by other countries. Information should be freely accessible to all. Since the British Crown claims a copyright in census records, I agree, if there were unauthorized publishing of census records they might restrict access, that is one reason why I haven't published the records I have (just Westray and Papa Westray) even though the dent in their claimed proprietary rights would be small. Though I do wonder if a challenge to those claimed rights, made on a large scale, might force reconsideration, but, perhaps some rocks can't be moved and I'm afraid I'm more Sisyphian than Herculean. Anne Rendall