Hi I have deleted most of the previous e-mails on this subject but the last few caught my eye and I hope I can clear up a few things regarding copyright. I am a 3rd year law student. I have a website that has the results of the genealogy research that I've been doing for the past 2 years. When I started posting this information, I did a little of my own research. Keep in mind that I am not an attorney. Here's what I found out: 1. Names and dates are NOT copyright protected. This makes sense if you think about what would happen if your name and birthdate were printed somewhere...if it were copyrighted you couldn't use that information without requesting permission. It doesn't matter WHO finds these names and dates...whether a layperson like myself or a certified genealogist. 2. INTERPRETATIONS of data potentially is copyrighted. For example, if you wrote a book about the life and times of one of your ancestors based on research you conducted using interviews, diaries, newspaper articles, etc. THAT would most likely be copyrighted. However, writing this book doesn't mean another person can't use the same newspaper articles and records and create an INTERPRETATION of their own as to what this ancestor's life was like. Think about all the various biographies on famous people and perhaps that will make this clearer. Information from my website was put on rootsweb by someone else. I am related to the Hyson family of Baltimore and I have info. posted about them on my website. Imagine my surprise when I found this same info. posted on rootsweb. The guy who posted it gave me credit for the information but he really didn't have to do that. He could have pulled the same birth, baptismal, death, and marriage records that I had and written the same hard facts. Sincerely, Meriah Williams