Hi Folks: The following message is posted for the benefit of "new" members of this TRAHAN Mailing List and will be re-posted on an ongoing basis. --------------------------------------------------------------- [IMPORTANT: Please be certain to read this message in its entirety]. Copyright issues are very complicated and while it is not my intent to discourage anyone from posting the excellent historical information which benefits all subscribers, it is very important that you be made aware of Rootsweb's policy relative copyright: 1. ROOTSWEB'S COMMON-SENSE ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY: Neither Rootsweb nor the Listowner (me) own the material posted on Mailing Lists. YOU OWN YOUR POSTS. When you post messages to this Mailing List, message boards, and other facilities at RootsWeb, those posts remain YOUR property under copyright law and as such, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that the material posted meets established copyright regulations. 2. ROOTSWEB MAY ARCHIVE AND REDISTRIBUTE: By posting to this Mailing List, you give RootsWeb a permanent license to archive and redistribute those posts, so as to provide current and future users access to your posts,. This policy may be superseded in specific circumstances by other commitments made by RootsWeb. 3. POST ONLY MATERIAL YOU OWN: When you post to RootsWeb, you must either be the copyright holder (that basically means you wrote it), have written permission from the copyright holder, or the material must clearly be in the public domain (which is very often the case). 4. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR POSTS: If you post anything that results in RootsWeb being sued, you are responsible for any costs you incur. They may also hold you responsible for any costs they incur defending themselves. 5. ROOTSWEB RESOURCES MAY NOT BE RESOLD: No RootsWeb facilities -- for example, Web sites, Mailing Lists, and message boards -- may be resold. Public domain content on RootsWeb may not be harvested for commercial or other use, other than as would have been permitted by the Fair Use provisions of American copyright law if the material had been copyrighted. Material written and posted by an individual may not be harvested for commercial or other use, except with the permission of that individual or as permitted by Fair Use. 6. ROOTSWEB MAY REFUSE SERVICE: For violations of this agreement or other policies posted on the RootsWeb site, RootsWeb may revoke the violator's right to use part or all of the RootsWeb site. SUMMARY: As you can clearly see, RootsWeb takes the rights of copyright owners seriously. As their Acceptable Use Policy (above) states, users are expected to post only material they own. Therefore when you post to the RootsWeb's Mailing List, you must either be the copyright holder (that basically means you wrote it), have written permission from the copyright holder, or the material must clearly be in the public domain. For additional information and guidelines pertaining to "copyright", please visit: <http://twp.rootsweb.com/copyright.html> YVON'S FINAL THOUGHT: After reading the massive amount of information at the above-noted link, it appears that the consensus is that one can reprint a PORTION of an article however, reprinting an entire article _does_ violate the copyright. I am certain that most people who do this, do not INTENTIONALLY violate the copyright law, but nevertheless it is important that you protect yourselves. Also, please remember, once a message is posted to the Mailing List, it is automatically/permanently archived by the Rootsweb software and CANNOT be removed from that archive. FYI. AN IMPORTANT PS: The subject of "copyright" is NOT appropriate for this Mailing List. If after carefully reviewing the information at the above-noted link, you have any questions, they should be directed to ME in a _private_ message. YVON L. CYR, cajun@acadian.org Facilitator of Rootsweb's TRAHAN Mailing List. For details visit URL : http://www.acadian.org/rootsweb.html