Wayne, This is news to me. The rootsweb.com folks do not condone the posting of copyrighted material to their servers, without the permission of the person holding the copyright. USGenWeb policy is the same. All .gif files are the property of their creators, but many if not most have been released for general use. Certainly a .gif of Mickey Mouse would be covered by the specific copyright for the Disney character. I doubt the assertion animated that the concept of animated .gifs is copyrighted, but don't have any real knowledge on the subject. Freddie S. On 19-SEP-1999 11:43:19.6 VAGEN-L said to FSPRADLIN `Freddie, `Sue Beach was using animated .gif files on the Loudoun County web `page. I don't know if you are aware of it but animated .gif files are `copyrighted. There was an article in the news recently about a company `that owns the copyright to them and they were charging people for `using them on their web pages. I don't think they were interested in `little guys like Rootsweb but they were going after big companies like `American Express, etc. They were charging $5,000 for a license fee to `use them. Out of copyright infringement fears, I removed them from `the Loudoun County web page and changed the web page design. I `recently received a complaint (which I welcome any complaints, `comments and suggestions from the people using the page) that I `changed the designed and took away the animated .gifs. The individual `has a hard time seeing the page and he said that he enjoyed having the `animation there to help him find things. Can you tell me what the `Rootsweb rules are for using the animated .gifs? I never used `animated .gifs before but I want to make sure I'm not violating any `copyright laws. Thanks, Wayne Greene `Loudoun County Coordinator FSpradlin@delphi.com 3448 W. 170th St., Torrance, CA 90504-2402