I have taken thousands of tombstone photographs, and posted them on the USGenWeb, and have never run into a situation where a church threatened me with legal action. I have done a little research into the matter, and with my limited understanding, the church can not "sue" the photographer. While the church could say that the cemetery is private grounds, they do allow public access to the site. As they open the site to the public during regular hours, and do not restrict the flow of the public to the site, then the cemetery is in the public view during those periods. Anything that is in the view of the public may legally be photographed without recourse. For instance, if you park your car on the public street, I can take as many pictures of your car I want. Whether you like it or not. I can not however, take photos of your car if you have it parked in your garage with the doors closed on your own land. Then I would be tresspassing. But when your placed your car in a public area, in the public view, it becomes fair to photograph it. If the cemetery is open to the public during certain hours, then the tombstones are in the public view. I would be interested to hear of any one else who has had experience in this. On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 5:00 AM, Janet L. Gray <[email protected]>wrote: > Is there any church rules about taking photographs of headstones in a > Catholic cemetery in Pennsylvania? > > The reason I asked: > On "Find A Grave.com" I requested a photo of a cousin's headstone in a > Catholic Cemetery in another part of Pennsylvania and a very kind lady took > a photo and posted it for me. The photo was on site for a week when she was > notified to take it off the site or the cemetery officials would sue her for > trespassing and a bunch of other things. > > Just Curious, > Janet (Maryland) > > > > - - - - - - - - - - > > Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: > http://www.camgenpa.com/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Ellis Michaels Pennsylvania GenWeb [email protected] *"If you would not be forgotten,* *When you are dead and rotten...* *Either write things worth reading,* *Or do things worth writing about."* *Benjamin Franklin*