Re: Find Out Anything! Sort of.

From: Charles Ellson <charles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I have always, and will always, take the line that the basic data is
public domain anyway and it is wrong to censor data in any way.

The basic data are disparate. What the law tends to control is
assembled and/or accumulated data which is generally not in the public
domain.>

But, surely, an accumulation of information collected entirely from the
public domain must remain "public domain data", however clever the
compiler is at fitting it together! Where do you draw the line and say that it
is no longer in the public domain!

To take an example.....

If I discover someone's birth date by buying their certificate, which gives
me the names of both parents, I can then find the parents' marriage and
from that the grandparents, etc. If I then find the grandparents on the
1901 census as children this will give me the great-grandparents, and so
on. Bingo - I've got a 4-generation family tree, all obtained perfectly
legally from public domain sources! Are you seriously saying this is no
longer public domain data because I've fitted it together? I simply don't
believe it - it's what we all do all the time!

I see constantly all the time in newspapers and magazines family trees of
some famous living individual where, clearly, permission to publish has
not been sought or obtained. When I do celebrity family trees for
Practical Family History it is always with complete co-operation from the
subject, so there's no problem there. However, I've never yet heard of the
Information Commissioner prosecuting a newspaper for publishing the
family tree of a living individual without their permission and I don't
believe it would happen.

Frankly, I am amazed that genealogists should even think about arguing
in favour of censorship.

--
Roy Stockdill
Editor, Journal of One-Name Studies
Guild of One-Name Studies website: www.one-name.org
Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History:
www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about,
and that is not being talked about."
OSCAR WILDE



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Magazine article
    ... name of a living person in one's family tree, ... sources, all of which are entirely in the public domain, then it's OK to ... The result is that employers are able to keep their benefits ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)
  • Re: Re: Magazine article
    ... name of a living person in one's family tree, ... sources, all of which are entirely in the public domain, then it's OK to ... There are no consequences to the chess game whether you publish the entire ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)
  • Re: Magazine article
    ... That's why a number of online genealogy search engines ... name of a living person in one's family tree, ... sources, all of which are entirely in the public domain, then it's OK to ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)
  • Re: Re: Find Out Anything! Sort of.
    ... That website has oepned ... Dean for my branch of Deans. ... that I remove their data from my family tree on the internet, ... Gathering data that is public domain does not in itself make the ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)
  • Re: Re: GEDCOM - Web site rule
    ... Everyone wishing to find out about their own family tree needs to be ... It is irresponsible to censor data in any way. ... If the living care to share their info with you that's fine, ... on current living people is already public domain. ...
    (soc.genealogy.methods)