Website: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nhatcher/faq.htm
List Admin: Hatcher email list
Researching: Cook, Hall, Hatcher, Kuhns, Miller, Shepherd, Timberman
HATCHER DNA Project: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nhatcher/hatDNA.htm
"Genealogy Without Documentation is Nothing" - Paul Drake

"I also have mentioned and firmly believe that many if not most such sites
plagiarize or
otherwise "take" the work products of honest researchers and sell those at a
profit without gaining or even seeking permission."

Some points of law.......

1) Names, dates, and places (that can be found in public records) cannot be
copyrighted.

This means that if you researched for 40 yrs and placed JUST this
information on a website, whether Worldconnect or voluntarily submitting it
to Ancestry, you have no protection against anyone legally copying it and
using it in their own work.

2) Any book over about 72 years old, unless copyright has been renewed, is
no longer copyright protected.

This means that any family genealogy book authored over 72 yrs ago can be
reprinted by anyone who takes the time and effort to do it. It also means
you or I can use (even for profit) any of that book without copyright
infringement.

3) If your work is recent, whether published as a book or uploaded to
Worldconnect, and includes your own personal writings or analysis of your
family research, your writings are copyright protected just as any book
would be. Anyone can copy the names, dates, and places, but if copying the
author's words and/or presentation, they would be violating copyright.

I believe if you look at the sources Ancestry uses, you will find they are
either coming from actual public records (such as the census images), from
voluntary submissions (the family trees submitted prior to the advent of
Worldconnect), or from books/sources no longer copyright protected. I
suspect if Ancestry, a large company in the genealogy field, were
plagiarizing copyrighted material, they would be finding themselves in a
court of law.

Whether you approve or disapprove of Ancestry, they are not doing anything
illegal or unethical, in my humble opinion.

Nel Hatcher

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