|
|
|
All non original graphics, HTML, and Javascript routines are either used by permission or are in the public domain. Original MIDI's by Peter Vantine, are licensed for use on my websites. All others are either used by permission or are in the public domain.
(a) Article I, s 8, cl. 8, of the Constitution mandates originality as a prerequisite for copyright protection. The constitutional requirement necessitates independent creation plus a modicum of creativity. Since facts do not owe their origin to an act of authorship, they are not original and, thus, are not copyrightable. Although a compilation of facts may possess the requisite originality because the author typically chooses which facts to include, in what order to place them, and how to arrange the data so that readers may use them effectively, copyright protection extends only to those components of the work that are original to the author, not to the facts themselves. This fact/expression dichotomy severely limits the scope of protection in fact-based works. Pp. 1287-1290. (b) The Copyright Act of 1976 and its predecessor, the Copyright Act of 1909, leave no doubt that originality is the touchstone of copyright protection in directories and other fact-based works. The 1976 Act explains that copyright extends to "original works of authorship," 17 U.S.C. s 102(a), and that there can be no copyright in facts, s 102(b). A compilation is not copyrightable per se, but is copyrightable only if its facts have been "selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship." s 101. Thus, the statute envisions that some ways of selecting, coordinating, and arranging data are not sufficiently original to trigger copyright protection. Even a compilation that is copyrightable receives only limited protection, for the copyright does not extend to facts contained in the compilation. s 103(b). Lower courts that adopted a "sweat of the brow" or "industrious collection" test--which extended a compilation's copyright protection beyond selection and arrangement to the facts themselves--misconstrued the 1909 Act and eschewed the fundamental axiom of copyright law that no one may copyright facts or ideas.
by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG The basic facts about our ancestors -- name, birth date and place, spouse, date and place of the marriage, death date and place, -- are not copyrightable because they are facts. You can not copyright facts, ideas, concepts, principles, discoveries, titles, names, slogans, short phrases, blank forms, general topics, common plots, or themes. However, by adding any kind of narration to the basic genealogical facts gives rise to a copyright in the creative portion of the work. While a simple pedigree chart is not copyrightable, even when filled in with facts, according to Gary B. Hoffman, a California attorney and author of Who Owns Genealogy? Cousins and Copyrights, if you add a "modicum of creativity'' you can claim copyright protection even for a pedigree chart. The same goes for computerized pedigree data, either in disk form or in a GEDCOM file.
Any and all commercial use of any material on this site, not in the Public Domain is forbidden under any condition!
Webmasters note: While I thought it most distasteful to have to post this on our site, there are those who unfortunately have made it a necessary evil. Hopefully we can at least use this as an educational tool.
If you would like more information on
things covered here Genealogy Copyright - Genealogical Copyright Issues
|