In a message dated 9/15/2006 11:50:17 AM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Dear Claire: What's Your point ? Birth , Marriage and Deaths are public domain or it would not be allowed to appear in a newspaper ! Using a persons photograph is limited , I can tate a photo of any public figure "President Bush" and sell as many copies as I care to , but taking a photo of You and saying photo thaken by Me ! of Claire and using it as an advertisment of My work without Your permission would show You endorse My photography work !That is illeagle ! You must wait for 50 years after the death of a person taking a photograph to copy it legaly into a book with out that persons permission , For instance My father took a photo of His Grand-mother or My Great Grand-mother , I can not publish that photo until the 21 Aug. 2049. I feel when it comes to Family information !Family would succed the copyright of a person being mentioned in a book! Glenn E. Yeager Genealogist Glenn- You seem interested in copyright issues and you also seem to need/want information about copyright which is beyond the scope of this list -- I'd suggest you subscribe to: [email protected] where such issues can be discussed at length. You don't "own" your family and you didn't create a photo taken by someone else. Copyright protects the rights of the author/creator. However, a photo taken by your father could be used by you if your father gives permission or, if he is no longer living, copyright may very well have passed to you as his heir. Copyright is a complicated issue and Claire has explained things very well. I'd have a minor quibble with Claire on the copyrightability of a digital image of a public domain document--such as a census image. If the image was enhanced by a special process the image is probably still not copyrightable but the process by which the image was produced could probably be patented. Joan