I recently observed with great interest a feeding-frenzy of lookups on the internet dealing with a book on the "Franklin Fire-Eaters", one of the groups of men from Franklin County who fought in the Civil War.  One person purchased the book and offered to provide free information from that book to anyone who requested it.  I'm sure they meant well and had a great time doing it. This is a controversial subject and I can see it from both sides. Information is to be shared, that has always been my philosophy and I do my best to do that.  But such a wholesale misuse of the book bothers me, especially since I transcribe court records and try to sell them as books. The hours that go into such work cannot be counted.  There is no profit in these books due to the cost of printing, etc.  If anyone ever figured out how much money a person would be paid hourly to do the work you might come up with ten cents an hour, that is no exaggeration.  I have kept the price of my books to a minimum so that more people could use them. If I was lucky enough to find my ancestor's name in a book I would gladly purchase it.  Add to that the fact that the book itself is part of the proof you need for your research.  Remember, without proof, your facts are meaningless.  And it is not the best proof, it is a guide as to what someone else found, it may not even be correct. I am in a peculiar situation right now.  I recently finished two books on the census and sold very few copies.  I am about to finish a book on the birth records and although this should be a very good reference book, I wonder if a few people will purchase it and then "share" with everyone else on the internet.  I don't know the answer.  A very good possibility is that I will sell only to libraries in the future.  That way the information is still available but it won't be given away wholesale.  Not a perfect solution but one I could live with.  Or I could make the price commensurate with the effort and no one would be able to afford them. Please be considerate in the future when "sharing" information.  If you do a lookup and say, yes, your ancestor is there on such and such pages, that is appropriate.  Giving away the information written in the book is not. The copyright allows personal use, this is definitely not personal use. Thank you, Beverly Merritt