Open letter to Commercial Genealogy Companies

My genimate, Kirsty Gray, has given me permission to share this letter she posted on her blog today.

I share her concern about the generous people who offer, via online groups, to do free lookups on genealogy subscription websites. I might add that those who can't afford subscriptions can make use of the free access provided at public libraries and family history societies.

Judy G Russell, in this video, eloquently explains why this sharing is illegal.

Open letter to Commercial Genealogy Companies

To whom it may concern:

I am writing today in the hope that you can take action over a very important issue. As a subscription-based service provider, your company has invested time and money digitising, transcribing and indexing records for the benefit of those of us who are keen (whether it be amateur or professional) family historians. We – a large proportion of the genealogical community – very much appreciate and value the work your companies are doing on our behalf to make more recordsavailable to us online (whilst continuing to enjoy the times when we have to ‘get our hands dirty’ with original documents and sources which are not available on our new-fangled gizmos). The rate at which you are adding resources is simply staggering and well worth the subscription fees we pay to access these records.

However, some people appear to have access of these records we pay for, without paying. How, you may ask? And you would be right to ask….! Do these characters have clever ways of hacking into your sites without paying? Are there flaws in your security systems? No and no.

These individuals are far from clever. They neither value nor respect the work that you are doing for the genealogical community and consider it their right to have free access to what they want. I wonder – would they expect to have a case heard in court, be represented by a solicitor and pay nothing? I am sure their plumbing and heating engineer would not turn up, fix their boiler and walk away without being paid. So, why is your service any different?

It isn’t. You have terms and conditions, fair usage policies, copyright restrictions and more, all available on your websites. Recently, two of The In-Depth Genealogist team interviewed Jill Ball, Judy G. Russell and I about exactly this topic. We expressed our concerns about Facebook groups offering look-ups from your websites and today, a vocal few tried to educate members of one Facebook group about the T&Cs they signed up to when they paid for their membership. It was clear that our comments were not welcomed by certain members of the group and a few individuals appear to think that they are ‘providing a service’ to the genealogical community by giving others free access. An interesting perspective when they are breaching the conditions of use…. When these individuals were politely directed to these conditions, they seemed to think that the appropriate course of action was not to read the conditions and consider their obligations, but to criticise the people who were trying to assist in the group, before removing their posts and then blocking the vocal members of the community.

The problem is, my dear Commercial Genealogy Company, that none of you jump up and down and do anything about these breaches. OK. I get it. You want all the genealogists to use your websites. You want us all to be your friends out here in genie-land. BUT, you are losing revenue because these individuals are providing copies of your records to others for free. If you banned a handful of people for ‘misuse of their subscription’ (or whatever you want to call it) and named and shamed them, more people would use your sites because they can no longer get what they want for nothing.

We – the respectful genealogical population – are trying to support you out here. I would urge you to get your moles out as well as listen to and act on the issues reported by the community. Join these Facebook groups and flush out the people/group who are breaking your rules. If you don’t, we will all suffer and the only winners in this game will be these who are getting their research done for nought.

Yours sincerely, A Seriously Concerned Genealogist.

Aussie Images

As I cast around for images to use on my blogs and in presentations I want to respect copyright.

State Records NSW recently posted on Facebook some images  from the series NRS 15051 School photos. Of course I followed their link and  found some charming old images of  schools my parents attended.  I then did a further search for some family related towns and localities via The Photo Investigator Search and found a load of images that would enhance my writing.

When I saw the note "Reproduction rights: State Records NSW"  on the images I thought "Oh, bother" I can't use them legally.  Then I noticed at the bottom of the pages a Menu item "Copyright". I am so pleased that I followed the link.

I'm no lawyer but after reading their Copyright statement I believe I can use the above mentioned images if I append the description required by State Records NSW ie "© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority of NSW".

You can read the Copyright Statement for yourself here http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/about-us/copyright-policy.

I am enhancing this post with a photo from the collection. I chose it because it is of a family group  in a rural setting going to school in 1929 and that is how my father and his siblings travelled to school at Bangaroo about that time. It would be perfect to illustrate a post about the Curry Children's school days.

This photo is described thus on the website:

Burdett Public School - members of Sid Nash family leave for school

Digital ID:	15051_a047_002044.jpg		Date:	c. 31/12/1929
Format:	Black and white photograph		Size:	160 KB
Source:	Item held at State Records NSW		Rights:	Reproduction rights: State Records NSW

© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority of NSW

Going out on a limb

Out on a Limb

I am going out on a limb with this post as I know that many of my genimates have very strong opinions that conflict with my stance on this matter.

One aspect of sharing in the genealogical community that I found disappointing at the recent FGS/Rootstech conferences was the unwillingness of some presenters to allow attendees to take photos of their slides. After the Conferences I noted some conversations on social media that censured the large number of Rootstech attendees who captured images of presenters' slides on their smartphones or cameras. This practice seems to be accepted at Rootstech, I am one who has snapped slides at the four Rootstech Conferences I have attended.

I have presented at three Rootstech Conferences and am flattered when people find the slides I proffer worthy of capture, maybe I'm a strange bird! I just read a blog post from Australia's Gold Medallist Genealogy Rockstar, Shauna Hicks, who gave some presentations in Brisbane yesterday. On her post Shauna said " as usual my slides are on the Resources page of my website". Shauna is of those Generous Genies who is willing to share her outlines with the community, maybe she's a strange bird too!

I asked permission of several FGS presenters to snap their slides and permission was granted, thank you. Instead of having my head down typing furiously I was able to snap the slides and be released from tedious notetaking, I could listen intently and make eye contact with the presenters. Others said "no" so I respected that and busily typed the content from their slides into Evernote. In all cases I managed to copy the content of slides.

The issue we discuss should not be about the format in which we take notes it should be about the ethical use of the notes we capture. 

I understand that slides are the presenters' intellectual property and subject to copyright. Presenters are worried that their work will be copied and distributed to others and that others might even take their work and use it to develop their own presentions on the topic. I wonder how many people who took pictures of slides in Rootstech presentations are actually going to prepare and present the topic as their own in another forum! I suggest that if people are going to plagiarise others' work and present it as their own they will do it irrespective of the format in which they captured their notes.

What I think people fail to realise is that slides are/should be just an outline of a presentation, they may be an aide memoire to keep a speaker on track, a reinforcement of important concepts/points or a scaffold for the audience. Without hearing the full spoken content of  a presentation it would be quite difficult to reproduce a presentation from slides.

I can't understand why presenters who don't permit photographing of their slides don't ask attendees to refrain from taking notes during their presentations, these are just two ways of capturing an outline of a presentation and achieve the same purpose. Those who take hand or typewritten notes during a presentation can also distribute them to others and develop presentations based on the notes.

We should be discussing the issue of how we use the notes we take at the events we attend not the means we use to collect those notes.

I think we should look at the bigger picture, give permission for people to record notes in a format that is convenient for them and concentrate on educating our audiences in ethical use of conference notes, handouts etc.   

I must be an author

I have been ignoring messages from the Copyright Agency Limited because at first I thought they were hoax emails and more recently because I just couldn't be bothered joining the agency to redeem some funds they say are owing to me.

The Copyright Agency Limited or (CAL) website states "CAL is a non-profit rights management organisation. We collect, and distribute to rightsholders, copyright fees and royalties for the use of text and images, including uses of digital content. CAL is a company limited by guarantee whose members are rightsholders, including writers, artists and publishers."


I am having an administria housekeeping day today so thought I would check CAL out and find out which of my words have been shared and how much CAL wish to pay me for their use. I can't remember writing anything that may attract payments under the CAL scheme.


An email received from CAL in May contains this info: 

"The amount we are holding for you is $411.49.

In order for you to claim the money it is a requirement of the Attorney-General’s Department that you become a member of CAL.Membership is free."

I have just completed the 7 page online registration form to join CAL and read through some old emails from the agency. It appears that I am owed some funds for an old website that I haven't updated for a year. The $411.49 will help defray some of the cost of my genealogy habit.

Copyright Questions - Australia

Adhering to copyright can be a pain in the ****.

CAL (Copyright Agency Limited) has a list of FAQs on their website that might provide answers for Australian Genealogists. It must be remembered that this agency represents Australian copyright owners so the answers/advice may show that bias.