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Author: EdKillian40
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.causey/896.2.1.1.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
There are two issues at work here regarding copyright.
The first is that ALL information that is of "public record" (birthdates, death
dates, marriage dates, etc.) can not be copyrighted.
Ancestry.com has gathered such
information and make it available to the public through a subscription services. Now, if
you can find the same information on record at the original source (courthouse, etc.) then
you don't have to pay any subscription service. What
Ancestry.com offers is
convenience at a price. But, if you copy the records from their service offerings and sell
them to third parties, you are violating their copyright.
The second copyright issue (and the one I am defending) is what someone does WITH the
information
Ancestry.com sells. If it is put it in a narrative and tells the story of the
family, then that story is copyrightable. Moreover, in my own case, I did the first
research on two families and NONE of the information contained in those genealogies and
histories came from
Ancestry.com sources. Yet,
Ancestry.com claims the right of copyright
on all information posted on their websites. AND, they will not defend my copyright on the
two families that I posted on their websites at one time. Neither would they cooperate
when others copied my works and posted on their own websites. And, to top it all off,
Ancestry.com then turn around and copy my work and sell family genealogies to third
parties; making profit on someone else's work.
Not a fair and open system and I do not support their work.
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