Hi Pat M.... I would be very interested in these comments as we have had a major disagreement on this issue on a private website I have. My understanding of the law is that if credit is given to the person who copyrighted the information and 10 or less copies are posted, the information may be used. **** I have seen NO such rule, and if you have a citation of authority, I would appreciate it. As a matter of discussion, "10 copies posted or presented where" would be the first question posed by any court? **** Truly, I do not believe this is or could be the state of the law. To illustrate, suppose I posted one copy on my website, gave one of the 10 to the newspaper, another to be read at a seminar or family reunion, another to a stranger for 50 cents, another to the library, another to a local genealogical society, and still another to a teacher for his classes ??????? By any of those actions of mine, though less than 10 copies were distributed, it is obvious, it would seem, that I have violated virtually every right held by the author of those works. The restriction being that you can not include in published material without express written permission from the author of the work or the one who copyrighted it. *****That is surely the law, and such permission surely should be in writing and witnessed in order that the person using that material may be completely safe; verbal permission sure would not suffice. One of my nephews pointed out another provision to the copyright law that I did not know, that if it is for teaching or instruction purposes, copyrighted material may be used. **** In my article you will find the rules as to teaching, explanation and critique, as set out by the U.S. Code. In those instances if no remuneration is gained or intended, and the use truly is for education only, then such usage likely is permitted. For a public website, I believe the parameters are different. Please correct me if I am wrong. Because of this disagreement, we have taken off a ll pictures and other things that are not owned by the family or that we have copies of. Thank you. Pat M.... **** This is a very difficult area of the law; how did you gain the photos? were such knowingly given or sold to you such that you now are the owner and not merely a custodian? did the actual ex-owner copyright the materials of which you speak? Did you gain those from a library, museum, or archives that is open to the public? Then too, notice that the mere fact that you are a descendant or relative of the person portrayed does not give you any rights as against the owner of that memento or photo (we can copyright such materials no matter the degree of kinship if any. Hope this might contribute to your concern. Again, I do not know how any court will act in future matters of intellectual property placed on the net, and I welcome the comments of those who work with the current copyright law. Cordially Paul To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html