Vivian- Copyright is to protect ORIGINAL words you created. The marriage records were not created by the person who transcribed them so the facts included in the book CANNOT be copyrighted. The formatting and original wording may be copyrighted and there may be a compilation copyright that pertains to the work as a whole but the facts, no matter how you slice them, cannot be copyrighted. Joan In a message dated 12/12/2008 3:22:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: I maybe wrong but arent' marriages public record and can't be copyrighted? now i understand that the other words that he/she uses can be copyrighted. or are they copyrighted. just was curious about the copyright. it is a tricky subject. Vivian