Re: COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

On 7/18/05, Katheryn (Fitzwater) Devine <bankdevine[_at_]mchsi.com> wrote:
>
> Copyright and Public Domain as relates to Genealogy
> What exactly is in Public Domain?
> What is my copyright for, if not as issued?

Before I go on, you need to stop being selfish. You should know that you should allow other people copy the names from your work in the same way as you are allowed to copy the names from the public records. In other words, what you would do, you should allow others to do the same. My golden rule for public domain materials.

Enough about my preaching.

> Copyright Office Attorney Stephen Fishman in his publication "Law for All,
> The Copyright Handbook"
> Chapter 7 addresses FACT COMPILATION COMBINED WITH COLLECTIVE WORK and
> references Genealogical works.
> This is an excellent book for the "lay person." This, and other "advice"
> tells me I own the ancestrial charts, the descendancy charts, the anhatefel
> charts, etc.

Not so fast. Here is what Attorney Stephen Fishman said in his other book, "The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More":

     A Genealogy (that is, a table or diagram recording a person's
     or family's ancestry) consisting merely of transcriptions of
     public records, such as census or courthouse records, or
     transcriptions made from headstones in a few local
     cemeteries, are also deemed by the Copyright Office to
     lack minimal creativity.  On the other hand, the creativity
     requirement may be satisfied where the creator of a 
     genealogy compilation uses judgment in selecting material
     from a number of different sources.
     (Chapter 12, Page 11)

Also, the relationships as shown in your charts are not copyrightable. You don't own the relationships in your charts. Anyone can copy the relationships between individuals in your charts but they can't copy the creative parts in your charts.

> I made a list of those I believe have violated my copyright from the 375
> pages of data submitted to World Connect under FITZWATER and came up with
> over 100 individuals.
> Many who have the exact "compilation" of records as I have. Just who of
> these 100 individuals "owns" the copyright?

Without seeing the materials, it is hard to answer your question. But, the copyright that you claim to own could be very thin. I don't see how you can own the names in 100 individuals.

> ... The closest anyone came was to say if monetary loss existed,
> then the individual infringing could be responsible.

They obviously are wrong on that part.

> I have read those Supreme Court Rulings, and noted the most recent effecting
> the Internet of June 28, 2005. They do not say what others state they say.

It seems that you are referring to the ruling on Grokster. It has nothing to do with the subject. I think that the Feist ruling is more relevant to this discussion.

> Cindy's List, the publication cited above, and numerous other sites with
> "interpretated opinion" of Copyright Law, specifically points out that
> genealogy is fully protected by bopyright laws as an original compilation
> work.

Only to the compilation itself. Not everything inside the compilation. See Section 103 in the U.S. Copyright Law.

> IS GENEALOGY NAMES THIS IMPORTANT TO INDIVIDUALS AS TO RISK THIS?
It is obvious that you look only at one side of issue. Suppose that you are on the other side of the coin. Suppose that you are not allowed to copy the names from the public records. Suppose that you are not allowed to copy the names from the compilations that come from the public records. Suppose that you have to pay money for the permission to copy names. You should recognize that the names should belong to the public domain at all the times so that anyone can copy names and create their own compilations and charts.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<josephpietrojeungriolo[_at_]gmail.com>
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>

Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923 in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright owners' prisons: 4,913

Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain. Received on Wed Jul 20 2005 - 01:40:01 GMT