OK great, sorry to post twice, I'm on a different computer now... Gloria At 09:48 AM 8/18/2007, you wrote: > >In a message dated 8/18/2007 10:22:41 AM Eastern Standard Time, >[email protected] writes: > >I have had a complaint from someone about some family history >material that another person asked me to post on the Woodruff County, >AR web site, and I did. It's about the former person's family and >using material that he originally had on another web site. He's also >saying that the post is not giving proper credit in the article(s), >and that there are copyright problems. He's pretty upset. > >Never run into this. Does anyone know if there are any policies or >procedures about that sort of thing? > >Gloria >coordinator, Woodruff County, Arkansas > > >Gloria- > >This is a really loaded question! It would require that we know a lot more >about the situation than you have presented in order to answer it--and the >copyright issues would be better suite to COPYRIGHT-L. > >That said, my first question is: >1) what is the nature of the family history material posted on your website? > If it is merely facts about deceased individuals: names, dates, places and >links from one generation to the next--these are not copyrightable. No one >can "own" his ancestors or control what other people do with facts. You can >only copyright original creative wording and there is nothing your >created or >that is original about facts. A person may have discovered a fact but he >didn't create it and he doesn't own it. So legally, if only facts >are involved, >it wouldn't matter whether the other person had the information on >his website >first or not. Of course, ethically, if the person who submitted the data to >you lifted it from the other person's research he should have given the >other person credit as being the source. Also, if more than just facts are >involved -- for instance a narrative family history with original >notes -- then >there could be copyright to the original content. > >2) Has the person complaining to you given you evidence or proof that he did >have the material on his website prior to the date the other person >submitted the data to you? In other words, can he prove in any way >that the data was >originally posted by him and isn't your submitter's data? On a related >note: have you asked your submitter where he got the data? > >3) Do you routinely ask that your submitters submit only data to which they >either hold copyright or they have permission to submit (if the data >is other >than facts)? If not--you should. > >Joan > > > >************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at >http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour > >------------------------------- >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