HOISINGTON-L Archives

Archiver > HOISINGTON > 1999-06 > 0928529164


From: Birdie McNutt <>
Subject: [HOISINGTON-L] Re:Copyright and privacy
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 15:46:04 -0500


Hi KD & Cousins,
To answer your question; It is not really what FTM is that is important,
it is more who they are; A product of a COMMERCIAL Company ie The LEARNING
Co, INC, Broderbund Software, Banner Blue and Parsons Tech. and GenForum,
Genealogy.com Co.'s that _SELLS_ FAMILY TREE MAKER "products" or the
Genealogical information "back" to researchers INCLUDING the research, of
those who "freely" give them their family trees via Family Tree Maker,
thereby making a "profit by selling" your research you GAVE them.
Say you have a Home Page on any site, and put all your research on it, that
included all "your" work, time and not to speak of the "cost" of
researching, compiling & obtaining "your" information, you are actually
PUBLISHING your family history or research.
NOW "If you included" ANY information you obtained from other researchers
via snail mail, email, books, mailing lists or whatever means, you can NOT
"Publish" any of this information without prior approval from the "holder
of the copyright."
Say I send my Family tree or any of my research to the HOISINGTON List,
that information is "automatically copyrighted" because it was
published/written/compiled my me, therefore to "Publish" this[my research]
on ANY Web page, Home page, Genealogy site, book etc., "without" permission
of the copyright holder is a clear violation of the copyright laws. The
information is posted to mailing lists for "personal use only" and CAN NOT
be published elsewhere for sale or profit by anyone without breaking the
copyright law. If you do violate anybody's copyright, you will then be
liable for any and all damages that occur.
Just because you got information off this or any mailing list, does not
mean it is available for you to take and sell or give it to someone who
might sell it for a profit.

MOTTO "If you WROTE it you OWN it!! if you DIDN'T, you DON'T !!"

Hope this helped a little. Some of you who have received "my research"
either from me or through another researcher via mailing list, snail mail
etc., note: this "is" available to be used for your "personal files"
ONLY. NOT to PUBLISH my family information anywhere without my
approval. I have excellent reasons for this which I will not go into
here, but I have encountered more than enough in "legal fees" trying to
protect my rights and "privacy." I am a very giving person and help all I
can toward the goal of "FREE Genealogy on the Internet", but I alson with
many others draw the line at helping or being a part of someone else
selling and/or making a profit off my/their research by publishing the
same.
I am sorry if I have offended anyone, but thought some of you should be
aware of how some feel about their research and the privacy of the LIVING.
and also about the mailing list copyrights in effect by individual posters.

Birdie (Totty) McNutt
P.S. the information that was posted on one HOME PAGE has been removed and
I have received an apology. She was not aware of the copyright and the
right to privacy law.
B.

KD wrote:

> I guess I don't know what this Family Tree Maker is, although I seem to
> remember some kind of ad coming through once back when i was so far
> behind on my mail. I must have just deleted it. What does it do?
> KD in MI

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