I have been on all sides of the copyright issue. I have contacted Brent Holcomb & GPC for permission to do look-ups on the Rowan County Marriage book he did many years ago (JD is still eating Rolaids on that one...) ; I have used excerpts from books published by researchers on the family in my Web site, and I have "published" my transcriptions of public domain documents at the same Web site. Recently, even before the tnjohnso@yahoogroups.com discussion of this matter, I became curious about what if......what if some unscrupulous person grabbed the transcripts of public domain documents which I had put on the Web for all to freely use and put them in a book to sell on Ebay or some such, or at a pay Web site? Basically, the answer is that I am shafted, at least, according to my reading of the laws. My recourse? I have attempted to not tread on a published author's toes, because God knows, transcription & associated work is real work.....the only caveat (to me) is if the work is out of print and permission is unattainable....I am still trying to find the author of a genealogy for the Charles MARKLAND clan from 15 years ago (the magazine is defunct). I have decided to keep on doing what I have been doing....if a scumbag grabs the stuff, well, I do plant a few mines in the abstracts, but life goes on and I will continue adding NARA public documents to the Web as well as any other public domain lists I can find. The Internet is a free medium for the betterment of every individual and I will not let the hoodlums run me from my neighborhood! In conclusion, to avoid copyright fights, just think of how you would feel if your work is freely distributed without permission. Best of wishes & sorry for the unsolicited mail, Billy P.S. I will have the Gettysburgh Casualty lists for the 5th, 6th, 21st, & 57th NC Regts. on-line Sunday night. I meant to have it done in time for the Anniversary but I could not find it before we left for vacation last week. Of course, when I got home, I found it filed under the letter "G"!!