hidden-metaphor

Manx Genealogy Archive 2

Re: passenger lists?
In Response To: Re: passenger lists? ()

The correct term is copyright which explains the notion that material published by one person cannot be republished by another without permission of the original publisher - this copyright extends to 70 yrs post death (or publication if published by some organisation/newspaper etc tho special rules apply to government UK,Manx,US etc pubs). Different laws apply in different countries but the 70yr term is now fairly standard.

Factual information cannot be copyrighted nor can obvious arrangements of lists so that giving the date of death etc is fine, MI's probably fall into a grey area in that they are public information but copyright also holds for compiled lists where some skill has gone into the selection thereof.

To give a simple example, the set of words of the will transcriptions on Brian's site are probably not copyright as they are public information (tho the exact form in which he has published them probably is) - my will summaries are definitely copyright as my skill (speaking legally) was needed to extract the key facts.

Many genealogical sources give blanket licence for family historians to quote relevant extracts on their own webpages (usually with some attribution but that is both good manners as well as good research practice) but not for wholesale copying.

The wording on your own site is probably of no legal significance whatsoever but I am not a lawyer.