I hesitate to throw in my 2 cents worth, but I think
we should keep in mind that the LDS Church is not
trying to make money from publishing Pedigree Files
on CD's.  I believe they are only charging enough to
cover their costs.
        I believe that Pedigree Files were instituted specifically
due to ongoing problems with the contributed Ancestral
Files.  What was the problem you ask?  The problem
was they allowed people to send in "corrections" to the
files.  Unfortunately, the "corrections" were often made
by people who didn't have the correct information, and
those people who did have good information got tired
of trying to correct the files after they were incorrectly
"corrected" by others.
        The solution being tried by the LDS Church is to have
people submit their information for publication on CD's
as Pedigree Resource Files.  These files can be used by
others, but cannot be changed by anyone but the submitter.
Therefore, if a submitter does careful work, his/her work
will not be corrupted by "corrections".
        Nothing keeps anyone from submitting information
--right or wrong; and if you share with anyone else, they
can submit it with their own changes.  Obviously, that
happens all the time, but it is not the LDS Church that has
done anything wrong in my humble opinion, they are just
trying to facilitate everyone's research.

        I am not a member of the LDS Church, but I am a volunteer
at a Family History Center where we help everyone we can.
There is no cost to use the facility, it is all paid for by the Church
and its members.  And that is the way it is all over the world I
believe.  Fees associated with getting microfilms etc. and making
paper copies are set to recover costs only.  So the LDS Church
is definitely not doing what they do to make a profit.  The information
on any file is just what is submitted--so blame the submitters, not
the Church.

                  Dale Grant

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