I have just received the following from the Rootsweb LEGAL-ENGWLS@rootsweb.com which will probably be of interest to all of us. I would also like to recommend LEGAL-ENGWLS@rootsweb.com to everyone. It deals with current legal aspects of genealogy including copyright, database rights, data protection and privacy in England and Wales. It is not a very active list and there are few who subscribe to it but I have received a great deal of help from it. To subscribe send the usual email to: LEGAL-ENGWLS-request@rootsweb.com There is a campaign to get the Historic Birth, Marriage and Death registers open to the public without having to purchase certificates. This could be done by either transferring the centralised registers held by the GRO to the National Archive or by transferring the registers held by superintendent registrars to the County Record Offices. In addition a number of commercial companies would be willing to digitise the registers allowing them to be available online and also available at the archives free of charge. See http://tinyurl.com/nnrr23j for further details. The government is amenable to opening data to the public, the Registrars General have continually claimed to "be working towards this". For this campaign to work your support is necessary, please write or email to your MP and ask them to support the campaign. If you are a member of the Society of Genealogists or a Family History Society, please contact them and ask them to support the campaign. Also please talk to your friends, write to newspapers, forums, mailing lists radio and TV, the more people that are aware of the campaign the more chance of success. Apathy will destroy any chance of success. These registers are your heritage. They are archived for your information Please help to make it Easier and Cheaper to access them Cheers Guy