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Archiver > TXBRAZOR > 1999-05 > 0927412656


From: Jim Turner <>
Subject: [TXBRAZOR-L] Official launch of familysearch.org set for this Monday
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 15:37:36 -0700


Here is the text of an article in today's Salt Lake City newspaper. It
mentions that familysearch.org will be officially launched at press
confereneces in Washington and Salt Lake City this Monday. This confirms
rumors that were floating around the FHL this past week. On Thursday, the
library had posted notices that the second floor of the FHL would be closed
to the public on Monday morning for a special event, but most staff members
had professed to not know what the special event was.

Altered bill 'protects' online roots
By Lee Davidson
Deseret News Washington correspondent

WASHINGTON - Rep. Chris Cannon has won changes to a bill he says
should provide protection that the LDS Family History Center needs as it
begins to share genealogy via the Internet.
Aides said it should help prevent companies from downloading vast
portions of church collections and then repackaging and selling them on
their own.
Also, it provides an exemption for genealogy libraries from proposals
that would require most organizations to obtain permission from all donors
of data before offering it over the Internet. Of course, LDS collections
have been amassed from the offerings of millions of genealogists.
Cannon, R-Utah, negotiated those changes on Thursday to a bill that
Howard Coble, chairman of House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and
Intellectual Properties, is pushing to tighten rules to make it more
difficult for companies to pirate and resell databases.
Coble's original wording, however, provided wide exceptions for
education and research purposes. Cannon aides said LDS library officials
worried that could leave their collections vulnerable, so Coble agreed to
changes to protect it.
"This bill means that people can access family history information
online from all over the world, without the risk of the church losing
ownership of the database information," Cannon said.
Also, Coble provided exemptions for genealogy libraries to rules he
seeks to require obtaining permission from donors of information in
databases before distributing it on the Internet.
Cannon said, "Because of this exemption, the LDS Family History
Library, as well as 3,200 other family history libraries worldwide, will not
have to worry about soaring costs and limited selection and availability of
information."
The action comes just before The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints plans to formally launch its new genealogy Internet site -
www.FamilySearch.org - on Monday at a press conference in Salt Lake City and
in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Club.

Here is the link to the original story:

http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100003128,00.htm

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