I can't answer the legal copyright parts of the question, but I would wonder about the origins of the typewritten pages. Where they someone's original writing, or did the person who typed them borrow or transcribe from some other document? J. H. ("Jay") Fonkert, CG Roseville, MN 55113 651-735-8630 [email protected] "CG" & "Certified Genealogist" are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, and are used by authorized associates following periodic, peer-reviewed competency evaluations. Certificate No. 965, issued 11 May 2012, expires 11 May 2017. -----Original Message----- From: Kathie Fortner via <[email protected]> To: TGF List <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Nov 19, 2014 9:22 am Subject: [TGF] Copywright I have a four page typewritten essay that I picked up in a used book store. It has the author's name but no date. It is mainly about changing customs. For example an oil lamp being a new invention. And people taking off their shoes and walking to town and then putting them back on as shoes were scarce. So it is talking about the early 1800's in Ontario, Canada. For the most part no names of people are mentioned and a generic name like Mrs. Smith could be substituted with no loss of coherence. Because it is typewritten is it correct to assume a copywright exists? I'm guessing the author is no longer living. Would I need to find who is the heir to her estate and get permission to post online? My only reason would be that it is an interesting document that I would like to share, I have no desire to make any money. Any thoughts? -- *Kathie Fortner* *[email protected] <[email protected]>* *www.fortner.50megs.com <http://www.fortner.50megs.com>* ------------------------------- 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

Kathie -- Sounds like fun! Jay's comment is very pertinent. Googling in quotes some unique or distinctive phrases in the document might reveal an unexpected origin. The legal situation will no doubt be different in Canada than in the US. I will defer to others on both, except to say that today in the US the date of creation would matter a great deal, and the form (typewritten or handwritten) would likely be irrelevant. In any case, and speaking of fun (i.e. research), the more you can discern about the author, the date of writing, and the quality of the information, the more valuable it would be. For instance, were these personal memories, a recap of what s/he remembers great-grandma telling 70 years ago, a first draft of a historical novel, a transcription of passages from a book s/he had on hand from a library, or something else? How do they check out against other known sources? Harold Harold Henderson, CG midwestroots.net *Finding Ancestors in Fort Wayne: The Genealogist's Unofficial One-Stop Guide to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center * http://www.midwestroots.net/ <http://www.midwestroots.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ACPLGC-April-2013.pdf> Certified Genealogist (SM) No. 1029 Certified Genealogist and CG are proprietary service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® used by the Board to identify its program of genealogical competency evaluation and used under license by the Board’s associates. On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 9:38 AM, jfonkert via < [email protected]> wrote: > I can't answer the legal copyright parts of the question, but I would > wonder about the origins of the typewritten pages. Where they someone's > original writing, or did the person who typed them borrow or transcribe > from some other document? > > > > > J. H. ("Jay") Fonkert, CG > Roseville, MN 55113 > 651-735-8630 > [email protected] > > "CG" & "Certified Genealogist" are service marks of the Board for > Certification of Genealogists, and are used by authorized associates > following > periodic, peer-reviewed competency evaluations. Certificate No. 965, > issued 11 May 2012, expires 11 May 2017. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kathie Fortner via <[email protected]> > To: TGF List <[email protected]> > Sent: Wed, Nov 19, 2014 9:22 am > Subject: [TGF] Copywright > > > I have a four page typewritten essay that I picked up in a used book > store. It has the author's name but no date. It is mainly about changing > customs. For example an oil lamp being a new invention. And people taking > off their shoes and walking to town and then putting them back on as shoes > were scarce. So it is talking about the early 1800's in Ontario, Canada. > For the most part no names of people are mentioned and a generic name like > Mrs. Smith could be substituted with no loss of coherence. > > Because it is typewritten is it correct to assume a copywright exists? I'm > guessing the author is no longer living. Would I need to find who is the > heir to her estate and get permission to post online? My only reason would > be that it is an interesting document that I would like to share, I have no > desire to make any money. > > Any thoughts? > > -- > > *Kathie Fortner* > > *[email protected] <[email protected]>* > > *www.fortner.50megs.com <http://www.fortner.50megs.com>* > > ------------------------------- > 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 > > > > ------------------------------- > 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 >