Rocky Strickland reminded me this was in Eastman's Genealogy newsletter, this
is FYI:
House Clears Copyright Act
The present U.S. Copyright Act was last revised in 1976, long
before the online world became popular. I am sure that the
lawmakers who framed the 1976 copyright laws never envisioned the
issues created by the World Wide Web. As a result, many people
have questioned what is legal or illegal online? Even worse,
thousands of people have unknowingly violated copyright laws when
creating Web pages or when offering databases online.
Of course, this problem isn't limited just to genealogy Web pages.
But genealogists have certainly had problems with the present
laws. Corporations and private individuals alike have copied data,
graphics and music without permission. Of course, doing that opens
up the possibility of fines and lawsuits.
I list new home pages at the end of most of these newsletters.
When I spot check them, I am appalled at how many of them have
graphics that obviously came from someplace else. Many have text
information that obviously was extracted from genealogy books, I
suspect some of these books still fall under copyright laws. And
time and time again I hear music sound clips, almost all of them
are obvious copyright violations. If your Web site has a .WAV file
of "Born Free" or "The Wind Beneath My Wings" or any other song
that still falls under copyright laws, you could face a
significant fine. Think about it.
This past week Congress passed legislation to safeguard copyrights
for music, software, and written works on the Internet and to
outlaw technologies that can crack devices protecting this
property. The act has specific language to protect databases, with
some exceptions. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was approved
by a House voice vote. The same act was passed by the Senate in
May.
You can find more information about this at:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C24928%2C00.html?sas.mail and
at
http://www.gpo.gov/congress/cong009.html (search on
"copyright", then look at H.R. 2281).