Good caveat; thank you.   "We are students and teachers to each other."    -----Original Message----- From: "eshown" [eshown@comcast.net] Date: 01/11/2013 04:25 PM To: Transitional-Genealogists-Forum@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [TGF] Reprinting info from another website > since an educational context is rarely considered a commercial market, where attribution is given, I would think one would be safe from a law-suit. And, deterrence from a law-suit is what copyright law is all about. Allow me to add a caveat to this, please. Legally, copyright is all about what is legally actionable, yes. But there's an ethical issue involved as well when one is considering the "marketplace." When Teacher A in a local forum--be it in a classroom or a society meeting--uses without permission the material of Presenter B from a national conference or institute, that use is not just a localized action that has no broader implication. All too often, some of the local attendees manage to leave that venue without realizing the identity of the individual who actually created the material--or without realizing exactly who created what portions of. Depending upon the formatting of Teacher A's handout, in which Presenter B's material was incorporated, society editors can and do end up copying portions of the handout into their newsletters with the material miscredited--and that newsletter can and does, all too often, end up online with Presenter B's material credited to Teacher A. Subsequently, some of those students and society members then go to a conference or an institute, where they attend the presentation of the person who created that material in the first place. Or, the area society brings in that presenter. The attendees recognize the duplication of the material when they hear it repeated and, all too often, they will use conference critiques or the Internet to express their disappointment that Presenter B offered "just a rehash of what we've already heard from our local Teacher A." On occasion, those dissatisfied individuals have even accused Presenter B of using Teacher A's material. The bottom line is this: A. If we are teaching others, we should have enough experience to be able to present our own material. (I'm tempted to put that point in all caps. :) B. If, under extenuating circumstances, we would like to use something truly unique that was created by another speaker, then--as Tom and Elissa have pointed out--we should ask. C. If we are the person who is asked and we give our permission (which I frequently do), it is wise to make two stipulations: 1. Our material should be reproduced as an image copy, with no additions or alterations; or 2. If a small portion of our material needs to be reformatted for, say, incorporation into a larger handout, then the redo should be sent back to us to make sure all important nuances have been preserved and no misinterpretation has found its way into the redo. (As you probably assume, I'm speaking from both experience and observation.) Elizabeth ---------------------------------------------- Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG www.HistoricPathways.com www.EvidenceExplained.com & for daily tips on sources and source usage: www.Facebook.com/EvidenceExplained. The Transitional Genealogists List was created to provide a supportive environment for genealogists to learn best practices as they transition to professional level work. Please respect the kind intentions of this list. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message