Everybody,
Dawn's got a point. We'd have to wait until 2000 for the copyright to
be over on a book published in 1925. Unless:
1) This is a government publication, which includes items published
under the auspices of a centennial committee of the State of Wisconsin,
and the like.
2) Shelley or Robin have already gotten permission. <crossed fingers>
3) Here's a tricky one: *Information* can not be copyrighted, the
*presentation* of that information is copyrighted. So, the actual names
& dates of service, etc., are not copyrightable. The way the author
presented that data is.
Unless one of the 1st 2 apply, maybe we better hold off on this for
another couple years? The 3rd one we might be able to prove, but I,
personally, can't afford to be a test case. I'm not sure "Fair Use"
would apply, except maybe at the County Coordinator level, but if all of
WIGenWeb had the information up, it'd be hard to claim "Fair Use" as a
group.
Copyright law is viewable on the Web at
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
Anybody else got any ideas?
Marsha Wilcox
mwilcox(a)lnd.com
Davis & Wilcox Web Design --
http://www.usroots.com/spungold/dwwd.html
USGenWeb County Coordinator for:
Lake Co., IL --
http://www.rootsweb.com/~illake/
Listowner for ILLAKE-L, tracing your roots in Lake Co., IL
Oconto Co., WI --
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wioconto/
Shawano Co., WI --
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wishawan/
Home Page --
http://mall.lnd.com/wilcox/
My Genealogy Page:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mawilcox/index.htm
MKnauft(a)aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 2/16/98 11:30:59 PM, SDGreen715(a)aol.com wrote:
>Shelley,
>
> If you could copy the pages for Shawano & Oconto Co.'s, & send them to
> me, I could/would put those lists up on my sites.
I am not an expert on copyright issues, but I think you may possibly be
violating copyright law if you post this information onto the internet without
the publishers permission. It is my vague understanding that a book has to be
at least 75 years old to be in the public domain, thus allowing it to be
copied in this way. The same goes for music, images, etc.
USGenweb as a whole has to be vigilant in regard to copyright issues. And, it
is a matter of your own liability. Please be very careful, we don't want to
get a bad reputation for "stealing" data, and we don't want any of you
getting
sued. : ) Are any of you lawyers out there?
Dawn Knauft
Coordinator, Dane Co. WiGenWeb
http://www.rootsweb.com/~widane