Copyright implicitly implies publication. Without distribution there is no
publication. It is a little like patent law which prevents you from holding
part of a patent as a "trade secret". You can't do that or the patent is
invalid. Patents require full disclosure of the methodology involved.
Similarly if the information is not made available to the public whether it
be free or for a charge there can be no copyright. If it once was available
then became unavailable the situation would be different. But you can't
write a book and hide it in the closet and claim copyright on it.
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: <TooFem(a)aol.com>
To: <GAGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [GAGEN] I need advice
Dot Jones <A
HREF="http://www.ci.thomson.ga.us/County/Minutes/commission/12-04-02.htm">sp
oke</A> before the McDuffie County Board of Commissioners on 4 Dec
2002 - while her address is not in the online minutes (that I can
find) if
the meetings are handled normally - her address will be in the minutes.
And - one of your pages has her addy - I looked it up and it is listed as
James Alva Jones in Thomson
Going to the August Chronicle sounds like a great idea - but not to
"expose"
the foundation. Perhaps a better way to approach this would be
contacting
them to run an article on your County site (free publicity) - if/when
someone
shows interest in doing so - you can work a gentle complaint into
the
interview.
It humors me that Mrs. Jones is the head of the McDuffie Historical
Society
(your dilemma is the prime example of this being a hysterical
society) and
the Wrightsboro Foundation) and has her thumb on all of the research.
The other way is for you to become involved with the Foundation - but come
in
through the back door - not via Mrs. Jones.
And lastly, it is privately held - not much you can do to force the
situation
except to get the word out - but you are going to have to walk a very
thin
rope.
I don't know if this is "legal" on our pages but you might consider doing
this: Write Mrs. Jones a formal request - not mentioning your prior
conversation..... enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. If she
says
the same thing in her letter back to you (and being a southern woman
of
that
certain age she will write back) I would then put something on my
page
that
lists the documents, records, etc. held by Wrightsboro Foundation and
then
say unfortunately these records are not available - link it to an image of
her letter.
After you have her letter, you can write the organization that has made
this
a Historical Landmark - and tell them how concerned you are that the
public
doesn't have access to the records - I would get the guy who
called her to
write a letter too - and inclose it with yours.
This brings us back to the copyright laws - are privately held public
documents under copyright laws. Email the Ga Archives and find out!
MK Harrison
<A HREF="http://mkharrison.com">mkharrison.com</A>
<A
HREF="http://www.rootsweb.com/~gabarrow/">Barrow County, GA</A>
<A
HREF="http://www.ancestry.com/landing/homelandsweeps2/landing2.html?...
de=3913&iid=3913%3A+Sweepstakes+1">Ancestry.com</A>
I don't know what kind of weapons will be used in the third world
war,
assuming there will be a third world war. But I can tell you what the
fourth
world war will be fought with - stone clubs. -Albert Einstein
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