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Poster:	Wileyrose	Date:	December 23, 2011 02:57:10am
Forum:	texts	Subject:	Re: Copyfraud

I do a lot of genealogy research and the local government record keepers are some of the worst abusers. The law clearly states when these records become public domain and yet the local officials use them for profit by publishing transcriptions, or just lists of the names and dates, and sell them, claiming the publications are copyrighted. Then they charge you a large research and copy fee if you demand a copy of the original document and it takes weeks or months to get the copy because there are so many requests.

Constant use is destroying the original documents and they are rotting away as we speak. They are irreplaceable! Familysearch, and other organizations, will scan everything for free and put it all on line but many locals refuse the offer because they don't want to lose the income the documents generate.

WE own these materials! Copyright laws were carefully crafted to ensure that everything eventually becomes public domain. The government is slowly taking away one of our fundamental rights and no one seems to care.