Thanks, Joan - fyi, the poster is a person who writes for the local newspaper. But of course he collects his data from articles, historical documents, data, etc. I don't know the history of what's gone on between these two people (the write and the complainer), but the guy complaining is doing so in a very, uh, angry way, so I assume something's gone on between the two. I'm getting ready to get busy with school - so I removed the article in question, and am going to add some other statements to the intro page where the articles are linked. We'll see. Thanks, didn't know about the copyright group. 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