I am a regular user of a LDS FH Centre in the UK and in common with many I am working my way through the films of Manx wills and probate records. I find a will of interest, take a photocopy then study and transcribe it at home. I also then pass the transcription on to Brian Lawson for his website so that it can be shared with others.

More recently some (but not by any means all) of these films have arrived in new boxes bearing the label "NOT TO BE SOLD, DUPLICATED, EXTRACTED OR INDEXED EXCEPT UNDER LIMITED CIRCUMSTANCES" When the FH Centre staff see this they prevent me from taking a photocopy of any of the wills on the film! This is a real inconvenience and seems to me to negate the whole purpose of making these films available. I can still photocopy from will films that do not bear this label!

I have emailed the LDS in the US and have been advised that “the Isle of Man records have a restriction on them that limits the patrons to photo-copying large portions or the entire film. This restriction was placed in our contract with the Isle of Man record holders and it is binding.” I am now awaiting clarification from the LDS for them to tell me what are the limited circumstances under which I can make any copy from these film.

I cannot see that any copyright still exists on these will and probate records – indeed the original copyright would have been with the makers of the will and their descendants (i.e. us) rather than anyone else. In any case one is always permitted in libraries to take a single photocopy of a printed article subject to making a declaration that it is for one’s own personal use and not to republish the original photocopy image .

The purpose of this posting therefore is to ask:-
1. Has anyone else also met this problem
2. Does anyone know exactly what restrictions the Manx Museum (presumably?) might have imposed on the LDS when these films were made in 1947!
3. Does anyone know anything more about this issue.

Thanks