Regarding the recent discussions about the message boards, copyright laws, etc., the following post is taken from the RootsWeb Weekly Review. Maybe it will enlighten us about the situation. Marybeth Corrigall --------------------- << MESSAGE FROM THE ROOTSWEB HOME OFFICE by Jake Gehring, RootsWeb Executive Producer Another week of work on the message boards has gone by. I just wanted to send out a quick note to report progress on bug fixes and enhancements as well as clarify my copyright statements which appeared in my last message. --- Users can now filter messages by category (queries, deeds, Bible records, obituaries, etc.) to see only messages of a particular type. --- Advanced searches may now be performed within a particular board and this option has been set as the default when the "Advanced Search" link is clicked from within a board. --- Combining the board hierarchies from GenConnect and FamilyHistory.com has progressed quite a bit since launch and is nearing completion. We realize this part of the launch has caused some problems, so thanks for bearing with us as we get one structure for all those millions of messages! Regarding the ownership of messages posted on the boards: RootsWeb states in its Acceptable Use Policy: "When you post messages to mailing lists, message boards, and other facilities at RootsWeb, those posts remain your property under copyright law." The Terms & Conditions at Ancestry.com are the same on this point: "Portions of [Ancestry.com] will contain user provided content, to which you may contribute appropriate content. For this content, Ancestry is a distributor only." And again from the MyFamily.coily.com, Inc. sites by users remain the property of the submitter or the original creator and we are a licensed distributor of such content." I really hope to resolve any concerns here by stating that "if you posted it, you own it." Please feel free to read these legal documents yourselves for clarification: RootsWeb.com Acceptable Use Policy http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/aup.html Ancestry.com Terms and Conditions http://www.ancestry.com/legal/terms.htm MyFamily.com, Inc. Internet Services Copyright Policy http://www.myfamilyinc.com/about_us/copyright.htm That's it for this week. Please keep your input and comments coming so that we can continue to improve the message boards and make your research easier! * * * >>