TABER-L Archives

From: "robert wordell" <>
Subject: [TABER] Copyright Law Change Contact Congress
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 07:23:22 -0700

I got this from another list. I hope I'm not sending something someone else
already sent.

Bob Wordell
in Denver CO
Searchin' for a past Ô¿Ô

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pauli Smith" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 11:29 AM
Subject: [COWELD] Contact Congress


> I checked this out - it is real.
>
> Pauli
>
> Proposed Legislation Would Wreak Havoc for Genealogists and others, of
course!
>
> A new bill before the U.S. Congress proposes to overturn one of the most
fundamental concepts of the present copyright laws. If passed, facts would
become copyrighted for the first time in U.S. history.
>
> The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (HR3261)
would make it a crime for anyone to copy and redistribute a substantial
portion of data collected by commercial database companies and list
> publishers. At first, that sounds like a good idea. However, a bit more
thought shows that nobody would be able to republish stock quotes,
historical health data, sports scores, or voter lists. In fact, a lot of
genealogy information could not be republished.
>
> If passed, Google and all the other search engines would be crippled,
probably driven out of business. These are online databases that collect
information, or facts, from other online sites so that the user can quickly
find the information they seek. If Google and the others are not allowed to
collect facts that are now copyrighted, how will they be able to index the
Web for you?
>
> Art Brodsky, spokesman for public advocacy group Public Knowledge, says
the bill would let anyone drop a fact into a database or a collection of
materials and claim monopoly rights to it. This would contradict the core
principle of the Copyright Act, which states that mere information and
> ideas cannot be protected works.
>
> Let's say that a commercial genealogy service such as Ancestry.com or
OneGreatFamily.com publishes the fact that your great-great-grandparents had
a child named John. Once that "fact" has been published by any commercial
service, that original publisher would hold the copyright on the
> fact, and no one else would be allowed to publish it again. The Family
History Library, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Genealogical
Publishing Company, and others would be prohibited from publishing that
information again in any of their online or printed works.
> In fact, private individuals would similarly be barred from publishing the
information in their own derivative works. If a commercial site publishes a
fact about your ancestors, you would not be able to place that fact on your
own Web site or in any book or report that you give to others.
>
> The language in this proposed legislation contradicts the core principle
of the present copyright acts, which state that mere information and ideas
cannot be protected works.
>
> You can read more about this proposed legislation in Wired News at
> http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,62500,00.html
>
>
>
>
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• [TABER] Copyright Law Change Contact Congress by "robert wordell" <>