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Archiver > INKOSCIU > 1998-07 > 0899773104


From: Philip Ritter <>
Subject: Re: [INKOSCIU-L] Broderbund
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 17:58:24 -0700


The Genealogy Message Boards on the FTM homepage are another place to
discuss issues concerning FTM. In particular the "Family Archive and World
Family Tree CD Questions" message board would be a good place to mention
concerns about use of the the GIS CD. You need to own a copy of FTM to
access the message boards. And if you do, notice that the agreement of use
specifies that although you retain ownership of the copyright of the
material you post, you grant Broderbund the right to distribute or
sublicense rights to distribute the material in the future. However I
doubt they will ever be selling any CD's of the technical questions and
complaints that get posted there.

I understand the concerns about this particular CD, and not all of their
CDs make sense (why buy a CD of the SSDI when you can search a more up to
date version on line). However, I personally find many of their other CD's
to be quite useful. In the future we can hope that all of this kind of
information will be freely available on the Internet. But until then,
where can one search a male and female index of the pre-1850 marriages for
most of Ohio at once (minus Ashland County and a few others)? Or find
someone in an index of the 1860 IN census and immediately be able to look
up their ages, birthplace, etc. without having to search through miles of
microfilm. Our local regional National Archives doesn't even have an index
of the 1860 Indiana census and not everyone is lucky enough to live near a
branch of the National Archives (or near Salt Lake City or Fort Wayne).
For the same reason I buy books from the Kosciusko and other genealogy
societies, I have bought and used CD's with some success.

Broderbund does have an unconditional 90-day return policy. I had no
problmes returning the mortality schedule CD when I found it didn't cover
the years I wanted; even though I later found that the exact states and
years covered was posted on their web-site. Their CD prices are not too
outrageous, especially if you buy them bundled. For example, the Brethren
Archives was talking about a $125 price when they floated the idea of a CD
of the index to the Gospel Messenger Obituaries. So you can see why
companies like GIS or Everton turn to Broderbund to distribute their
material on CDs.

I don't mean to sound too much like an apologist for Broderbund. I'm not
totally happy with their program (especially the 2nd class status they give
MAC users), but I do think many of the CD's are useful. If we all thought
that the only fair or satisfying way to obtain information was by writing
letters and visiting local archives, like in the old days, we wouldnt be
using the internet either.

Phil

At 07:58 PM 7/6/98 EDT, you wrote:
>In a message dated 98-07-06 09:55:35 EDT, you write:
>
><< I have just spent a half hour poking around on both the Broderbund web
site
> and the Family Tree Maker web site and can not find a place on either site
> where I can leave a message regarding disapproval of the GIS CD. If any of
> you can find the place where to leave this type of message, please post to
> this list specific directions.
> >>
>
>Marge,
>
>You could always make a post to the soc.genealogy.computing newsgroup. Paul
>Burchfield, Broderbund customer support rep, is always reading the messages
>there, along with a jillion other people 8-) Also, there is a FTW mailing
>list, should be mentioned somewhere on the web page. Other than that, I
don't
>think they take messages from "customers"
>
>Sherry
>
>
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