Greetings,
A Couple of days ago, I posted a message "ITS MINE!"
I still feel that many over-reacted, however my feelings, and reality
don't often coincide; PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:
Pat indexs the Jones Cemetery, and places it on the Net
Fred copies the 1830 Ohio Census, and places it on the Net
Betty transcribes the VA 1750-1780 Court Records and places them on the
Net.
George copies his 3 family Bibles, and places them on the Net.
Cool, all the genealogists are HAPPY!
Goofus copies all of their work (regardless of who the work belonged to)
There is e-mail WAR.
It dies down...Goofus files a Copyright on his pages...
Goofus demands all other pages; Pat, Fred, Betty, and George are in
Copyright violation and MUST remove their pages.
The Court will back up Goofus, because;
1 He has a copyright
2. They don't
3. They have the same "information" as Goofus.
Goofus waits until all pages are removed...He then CHARGES for use of
his Work.....
Get the point??? The world isn't fair and just. Rootsweb and USGenWeb
are trying to keep information FREE...so they copyright the material
that is archived there. If World Family Tree, or others download the
files there, they can do the same, as Goofus!
I regret that nothing in this world is free, my computer cost $Big,
paper, time, etc. If we want information to remain "free" we need to
support Rootsweb, USGenWeb, Etc...
Can anyone remember when TV was free???
I guess, its time to protect ourselves!!!!
Lisa Henderson