Copyright Fundamentals for Genealogy

"Copyright Fundamentals for Genealogy

by Mike Goad

This article is available for free distribution and reprint as a public service from the author. Please read conditions at the end of the article.

Since genealogical research inevitably involves copying of information, questions involving copyright often crop up. When an answer is given, it may be less than satisfactory. Sometimes the answer is wrong, sometimes there is little or no explanation, and sometimes the answer isn't an answer, but a policy statement. In other instances, the answer is right, but it isn't what the questioner wanted to hear.

While copyright can be very complex and confusing, the parts of copyright law that usually apply to genealogy are really pretty basic. There are a few fundamentals that can help deal with just about any genealogy copyright situation.

Copyright means copy right

Literally, the term copyright means the right to make copies of some product. By law, the right belongs to its creator. In copyright law, the product that's copyrighted is referred to as a 'work' and the creator of the work is its author. From that, we can say:"