Copyright law is complex and sometimes confusing for those of us who are not attorneys specializing in that area (i. e., most of us). The University of Texas has a really helpful discussion of copyright law at http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm Someone said that including information in an e-mail is publishing. I could be wrong, but I don't think that is correct in a private e-mail. The reason it is true of Rootsweb e-mails is that they are not private but are seen by all the subscribers and are available to the general public in the Rootsweb archives. Sara Binkley Tarpley