ETHICS-IN-GENEALOGY-L Archives

From:
Subject: Re: [Ethics] Mailing Lists and Web Sites
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 10:45:33 EDT

In a message dated 5/15/2004 4:40:40 AM Eastern Standard Time,
writes:
Mailing Lists: When people put their family particulars on a Mailing List
to request further information, does anyone have the right to collect this
information off the Roots Archive List and compile it on their own CD and
Sell the CD ? The Compiler has asked permission from some people, but not
everyone and it has been a very big shock and surprise to some people.
------
Valda-

With the permission of the posters, or if someone only included posts they,
themselves, made to the list and they held copyright or had permission of the
copyright holders, they could. Otherwise, no--and it isn't a matter of ethics
so much as a matter of copyright violation.


<<Is the information then clarified as being available in the "public domain"
once it is on the Mailing List ?>>

No--original content that can be subject to copyright remains the property of
the poster. Information that someone transcribes and posts to a list that
isn't theirs to begin with and that is in the public domain does not gain
copyright status merely because it is posted to the list--vital records info can't
be copyrighted by anyone nor can public domain material.


<<Web Sites: A person takes information, from another Web site and claims it
as their own, without acknowledging where the information came from? The
personal information has only been found by off chance, when trawling the
Internet.

Web Sites: Is it correct to collect all one-name Family Names and compile a
Family Web site with the names they have collected ? The respective
families will not be known, as it is just a project of compiling names, but
eventually the respective families will find out.>>

Names, dates, and vital records info cannot be copyrighted by ANYONE and can
be taken from a website or ANYWHERE and compiled onto a new site--but the
formatting and original content cannot be copied verbatim or copyright is being
violated. This isn't a matter of ethics--it is a matter of copyright. Ethics
and copyright are entirely different issues. As to ethics, one might be
expected to list the source where one obtained the vital record type info that one
copied from a site, but the info may have been obtained from a variety of
sources since it is publicly obtainable.

Of course, this doesn't mean that an entire website can be copied whole cloth
in its original format without it being copyright violation even if the
database includes vital record/public records. The formatting and arrangement and
layout ARE copyrightable as is any original content.

Another thing regarding mailing list archives...RootsWeb/Ancestry has a
compilation copyright to the archives as a whole--as a database--and it would be a
violation of that copyright for an entire list's archives to be taken and
placed on a CD and sold--UNLESS, permission is obtained from EVERY poster to copy
their posts.

Joan

This thread:

• Is Anyone on the List ? by "Valda Napier" <>
  • Re: [Ethics] Is Anyone on the List ? by Valorie Zimmerman <>
  • RE: [Ethics] Is Anyone on the List ? by "Chris Eddy" <>