ALT-GENEALOGY-L Archives

Archiver > ALT-GENEALOGY > 2001-07 > 0994038128


From: "Kim" <>
Subject: Re: Will do a few free lookups
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2001 21:42:08 -0400
References: <9hkhcc$3je$3@slb4.atl.mindspring.net>, <eFu%6.86$KQ3.13605985@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com>, <9hmdb1$ncs$1@slb5.atl.mindspring.net>



"Richard A. Pence" <> wrote in message
news:9hmdb1$ncs$1@slb5.atl.mindspring.net...

> I think there is a quite a bit of difference between doing what
> you say is OK (I agree that such one-to-one exchages are fine) and
> publically offering to do it for anyone.
>
> Each WFT CD comes with a little booklet which no one bothers to
> read but which outlines acceptable use. On page 9 it says it is a
> "violation of sharing" to "systematically make the CD available to
> more than one person at a time" or "systematically making large
> parts of a CD's contents freely available."
>
> Publically offering to do free look-ups for any and all certainly
> is "systematically" making the information freely available to
> more than one person.
>
> I am surprised that genealogy.com (aka Broderbund, Banner Blue,
> FTM or whatever) hasn't forced the closing of the look-up sites
> long ago. It probably doesn't want the hassle.
>
> I don't think "Buffalo" is going to be arrested or sued if he
> follows through on his offer to do free World Family Tree lookups,
> but every person who is a buyer of these products ought to be
> bothered when others systematically give the information away -
> thus shrinking the user base and keeping costs high.
>
> Simply put, I think it would be nice if the Internet genealogical
> community acquired a little more respect for the property rights
> of others.


What you are forgetting here is that the WFT CD's are acquired by
Broderbund, Banner Blue, FTM or whatever from *users* in the first place.
The information comes from users of their software who freely share the
information with the company, who then put all the information on a CD and
turn around and sell it back to those same users. It's not as if the
information is their hard fought property to begin with.

And 80% of the information on the CD's is available on line via the
"Personal Web Pages" they offer to users.

Kim



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