You are right, it doesn't, BUT the Parent Company TGN's Terms do state that by
placing anything on one of their servers, and it names the companies, you give them 3rd
party rights to distribute (sell) that data as they see fit. The Rotsweb AUP does say they
are a "distributor". What do distributors do? They sell things.
We are not dealing with just
rootsweb.com any longer, it is the TGN that owns the servers
and they make the rules. I personally am uncomfortable with that. The episode of the IBI
last summer was just the beginning. TGN is no longer owned by a group of people with a
desire to make genealogy and history available to anyone, they are owned by a corproate
INVESTMENT firm whose bottom line is how can we profit from this. This is a company that
has a proven track record in wringing out all the possible profit from a company and
spitting out a broken shell and walking away from it. IF UsGenWeb PAID for hosting, then
TGN would have no 3rd party rights to the data. Read any free hosting service terms.
There is usually a small print section that gives them (the hosting company) 3rd party
distribution rights to the data on their server.
With things such as our fledgeling Obituary Database where we are making a guarantee that
no financial profit will be derived from the data, we would be lying to the newspapers as
WE (FLGenWeb) have no control or say over the USGenWeb Archives FLfiles. The person in
charge of the FL files is NOT a member of the FLGenWeb. They removed all FLGenWeb members
from the Archives and Tombstone Project as soon as word leaked we were considering
incorporating and moving from rootsweb.
If I am going to recruit data for FLGenWeb, I want it in a location that FLGenWeb has
control over. Actually there would be no FLorida Obituary Database if we did not have a
seperate Archives for Florida because I would never have initiated it or made contact with
the first newspaper. I don't even want my county sites to be on TGN space that gives
them 3rd party rights to "distribute" (an euphemism for SELL) anything placed
there.
So the question is this:
Given the option of placing data with USGenWeb Archives that will be placed on a server
whose owner (TGN) has 3rd party ditributuion rights or placing data with FLGenWeb Project,
Inc.'s Archives where we own/lease the server space used and have absolute control
over its use and reproduction, where do you want your data? It really just boils down to
this: Do you want your data to remain in a free environment that generates no funds from
its placement or do you want to place it where someone will use 3rd party rights to tak it
and sell it, and you don't even get a thank you much less a portion iof the profit.
If my data is going to generate funds for anyone those funds should be mine, not some rich
fatcat on Wall Street who is getting even richer off my work.
Genealogy is no longer a hobby, it is big business and if we dont take steps to protect
our work now, it will be lost to us forever.
Laverne Hammock Tornow
FLGenWeb Project
Director of Operations
www.flgenweb.net
www.flgenwebarchives.com
FLGenWeb Project County Coordinator
Citrus Pasco and Pinellas Counties
www.flgenweb.net
Hernando County Historical Advisory Commission
www.hchac.com
----- Original Message -----
From: lyzehner
To: flgen(a)rootsweb.com
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:39 AM
Subject: Re: [FLGEN] FLGenWeb Project Archives
Laverne, I must be looking at a different UAP than you are. The RootsWeb
UAP at
http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/aup.html does not contain the
word "sell" anywhere, nor is there any mention of profit or resale.
What I did find is:
*"User-Provided Content*
Portions of the Service will contain user-provided content, to which you
may contribute appropriate content (the "Submitted Content") For this
Content, *_the submitter is the owner_,* and
RootsWeb.com is only a
distributor." ....
"MyFamily.com, Inc. is sensitive to copyright and other intellectual
property rights of others."
Am I missing something here?
Thx,
William Zehner
SouthernGenes wrote:
In case any of you were not aware of this, the FLGenWeb Project, Inc.
owns and operates
www.flgenwebarchives.com as a Digital Library and Archives. Unlike
USGenWeb, we will not archive the html pages you have on your website, but only data
submitted for the FLGenWeb Archives. We created it as an alternative to the USGenWeb
Archives for the simple reason that if we own it and it resides on our server space we can
control it. Data submitted to USGenWeb ARchives ends up on a server whose AUP states that
the owner of that server/Rootsweb/TGN can use/sell that information as they see fit simply
because it is on their server.That is unacceptable to the FLGenWeb Project, Inc. as these
documents were donated for FREE ACCESS, not for a comglomerate to make money off of, money
which neither the submitter/legal owner or FLGenWeb gets a cut of.
The FLGenWeb Archives is a secure space that we can assure donors their data will remain
in a FREE ACCESS environment, will not be harvested or sold by FLGenWeb, nor will we
willingly allow anyone else to reek profits from the data housed there. Haivng our own
archives also make us much more attractive to grant programs as it underscores th
educational value of what we do. We don't just house data we house Florida's
History at the local level.
While there is not a lot there as yet, we have a good start going thru the generosity of
some local newspapers and historians who believe enough in what we do to allow us to use
whatever we find that is historically valuable in their publications as long as it is NOT
ever sold. Our fledgling obituary project would not have gotten started as we could not
make those kinds of guarantees using USGenWeb Archives, beause we have no control over the
data placed there. At FLGenWebArchives we can make guarantees to our donors, guarantees
that we can uphold because we make the rules, not USGenWeb or TGN. If a donor wishes his
data removed, all it takes is a request, at UsGenWeb Archives, I know from experience that
it is near impossible to get something removed once placed there.
Laverne Tornow
Director of Operations
FLGenWeb Project, Inc
www.flgenweb.net
www.flgenwebarchives.com
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