In a message dated 2/13/04 9:37:47 PM Pacific Standard Time, rbasha@wt.net writes: > Genealogical Codicil to a Will... These should include something about copyrights. The current law makes copyright nearly immortal, and it applies to your self-published, small scale works just as much as to your NY Times #1 best seller. The result of this is many interesting but obscure publications languish in the back shelves of libraries, because nobody can touch anything "published" after about 1920. So you can't take distant cousin Pete's family history book and update it with your work -- you don't really know the owner of his copyright, and expensive litigation, fines, and jail time might result! This is a real problem with 2 documents related to the Helm family (one pretty well known, one more obscure). Consider releasing or at least assigning your copyrights in your will, so something sensible happens to your published material & it doesn't go into this twilight zone.