Research and Copyright

By Connie Lenzen

An article written for the 2 October 2003 issue of the Vancouver Columbian newspaper.

Matt, my 12-year-old grandson, is working on a research project. He is to write a biography of a famous scientist. Matt enjoys science, so this is not a problem. The problem is in locating the information. His mother brought out the encyclopedias, and he sat down to read about his selected scientist. He went online and browsed the homework websites.

Matt's teacher told him that he must use at least three sources, he must not copy the information word for word, and he must use footnotes. The teacher explained that copying a published article and calling it your own is called plagiarism, or stealing.

These guidelines hold for genealogy, too. We should look for a number of documents for each ancestor, we should not copy other's work, and we should cite our sources.

I was reminded of that last week when I saw a woman who copied one of the family genealogies that I did for my foster-daughter. The woman posted it on a USGenweb site that she hosts and deleted the part about it being my work.

I always give permission for people to copy my work if they ask and if they cite me as the author. However, this time, I was not asked.

I protested this stealing, but I received no reply. The woman eventually put in a line saying that people could contact me if they had questions, but she had no information about how people could find me or that I had created the work.

This woman has violated two of the guidelines that Matt's teacher set out: do not copy the information word for word and use footnotes.

People who would not come into your house and steal a book see nothing wrong with stealing the printed word when it is an article about a family. Maybe they think they have a right to do so because it is their family, too. Maybe they think it is OK because they are not making a profit on it. Maybe they think there has to be a copyright notice.

All of this is incorrect.

There are several Internet articles that explain copyright law in normal English. One is Gary B. Hoffman's "Who Owns Genealogy? Cousins and Copyright,"online at http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/14_cpyrt.html?Welcome=1044652177.

Another is Brad Templeton's "10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained,"online at http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html.

The Library of Congress issues copyrights, and they have a website at http://www.loc.gov/copyright. I enjoy this particular website because it has a place where you can search for books. It's a good way to see if someone has written a book about your family and deposited a copy in the Library of Congress.

© 2003

Connie Lenzen, CGSM

CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certified genealogists after periodic evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.

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