From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Wed Jul 19 09:51:20 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k6JFpKjb031302; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:51:20 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k6JFpKdA006631 for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:51:20 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k6JDDHFI010954 for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:13:17 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k6JDDGpt010953 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:13:16 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k6JD3OFI010879 for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:03:24 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k6JFfG8i028354 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:41:16 -0600 X-Envelope-From: JYoung6180@aol.com Wed Jul 19 09:41:16 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k6JFfGjb028343 for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:41:16 -0600 Received: from imo-m14.mx.aol.com (imo-m14.mx.aol.com [64.12.138.204]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k6JFf52D029423 for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:41:08 -0600 Received: from JYoung6180@aol.com by imo-m14.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v38_r7.5.) id e.bc7.88b491 (41811) for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:40:52 -0400 (EDT) From: JYoung6180@aol.com Message-ID: Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:40:51 EDT To: ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" X-Mailer: 9.0 SE for Windows sub 5026 X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Re: Ancestry World Tree Project Surprise From: _AMADAN1960@aol.com_ (mailto:AMADAN1960@aol.com) Pat, I did a limited amount of research through an attorney, and was told that, If you wrote the information, and can prove it is a copy of your original information, then they have stolen your copyright. If that is the case, then Ancestry.com could potentially be sued for printing information they have no copyright too. Copyrights do not neccessarily have to be sent to a copyright office to be a copyright. Jane --- Jane- There is a list at RootsWeb called COPYRIGHT-L which is a much better place to discuss copyright issues (you and Pat will get more informed and complete answers there) however, as a rule the data included in family trees isn't copyrightable because it only includes FACTS and facts and other public domain information such as names, dates, and places are not copyrightable. Primarily this is true because you don't CREATE facts--you may be the the one who discovered them--but you didn't create them and, as such, they cannot be copyrighted by you either. About the only part of a family tree that can be copyrighted are your original notes in your own words. Those you did create. As Margaret already pointed out, if Pat didn't submit her tree to Ancestry then someone she gave the information to submitted it. She should, in most cases, be able to obtain the submitter info from viewing the file on AWT. Joan