Subject: [VAHALIFA] A possible anti-genealogists copyright law?
> FYI, I received this and am most concerned since this interpretation of
> the law would be most detrimental for genealogists.
>
> E. Kaspar
>
> ********************************************
> FROM: Kristy Gravlin <hannah(a)teleport.com>
>
> For those who want to read the actual legislative bill which was
> submitted
> to the House Judiciary Committee regarding copyright laws, you can
> access
> this URL PDF file:
>
> (URLs not allowed on this site).
>
> The core of the proposed law can be found in Section 3:
>
> Any person who makes available in commerce to others a quantitatively
> substantial part of the information in a database generated, gathered,
> or
> maintained by another person, knowing that such making available in
> commerce
> is without the authorization of that person (including a successor in
> interest) or that person's licensee, when acting within the scope of its
>
> license, shall be liable for the remedies set forth in Section 7...
>
> "In plain English, what this law is saying is that copyright protections
>
> will be extended to databases, regardless of whether the information
> contained within those databases is, itself, copyrightable. Collections
> of
> information which is, itself, unprotected (pricing information, sports
> scores, weather data, etc.) will become protected. In a sense, this law
> allows somebody who compiles a database to own the facts found therein."
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
>
> My understanding of this bill is such that when I post information on
> the
> internet about my family's surname, ancestors and descendants alike, it
> will
> become the property of large databases who will receive the information
> via
> their technology.
>
> Thus I would no longer own MY information of MY family. If I wanted to
> write a family history book based on my lineage, then I would have to
> pay that "owner"
> copyright royalties for MY own information. This is extremely unfair.
>
> -Kathleen
>
>
>
>
>
>
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