downloading records and using the information

[tezzer]

Does any one know if the copies of census pages, weddings records, Baptism records or any other records found on such sites such as Ancestry, The Genealogist or Find My Past are copyrighted. Can i download a copy of a record and post it on a blog without needing to ask or gain permission?.
What about other written records that are collected through using the sites? Im only talking about the picture type records, the scans from church register books or baptism books, not actual site generated captions or wording.
                        thanks for any help
                                          Tez   

[Guy Etchells]

Does any one know if the copies of census pages, weddings records, Baptism records or any other records found on such sites such as Ancestry, The Genealogist or Find My Past are copyrighted. Can i download a copy of a record and post it on a blog without needing to ask or gain permission?.
What about other written records that are collected through using the sites? Im only talking about the picture type records, the scans from church register books or baptism books, not actual site generated captions or wording.
                        thanks for any help
                                          Tez   

The answer to that question would be found on the relevant companies website.

FindMyPast : read section 19. Intellectual property rights it states-
“...You cannot use the Records to create your own work such as databases, articles, blogs, or books, or copy or reproduce the Records (either in whole or in part), or publish them, for a purpose other than personal use, without our prior written permission (and/ or that of the Licensor of the Records).”

Ancestry : read section 2. Your Use of the Services
“...Not to resell the Services or to resell, reproduce or publish any content or information found on the Services, except as explicitly described in these Terms;”

The Genealogist and other sites have similar terms, in all cases of content provided on the internet you should always ask permission from the site owner to re-use it unless they declare you are free to use it as you wish.
Cheers
Guy

[philipsearching]

This would depend on the country and the type of record.

England/Wales census images are copyright (I believe by the National Archive).  Images of parish registers and civil records (wills etc.) are often copyrighted by the county archive which holds them.

As a general rule it is best to work on the assumption that images are copyrighted.  It is a breach of copyright to reproduce a complete page, although a snippet is generally considered "fair use".

Philip

ADDED - Guy's response is (as ever) clear and comprehensive)

[tezzer]

Ok thanks guys ...for some reason i was under the impression because you can find these records on free sites as well as pay sites the actual pages from church registers, census records and similar records where not owned by any one. I understand the process of taking a copy to put onto a site would cost the site time and money to provide but i thought that was why you pay for membership.
What i had planed to do was to create a way that my family could contribute to my research with photos and information at the same time as being able to see what information i had already found. All of this i wanted to keep private by invitation only. Very few of my relatives have ancestry accounts let alone all 3 sites and i have information from each site collected together on my pc that no one but me is able to see
                                 Tez   

[Guy Etchells]

This would depend on the country and the type of record.

England/Wales census images are copyright (I believe by the National Archive).  Images of parish registers and civil records (wills etc.) are often copyrighted by the county archive which holds them.

As a general rule it is best to work on the assumption that images are copyrighted.  It is a breach of copyright to reproduce a complete page, although a snippet is generally considered "fair use".

Philip

ADDED - Guy's response is (as ever) clear and comprehensive)

No, in general the census records for England & Wales with the exception of the 1911 census, are Crown Copyright. The 1911 census is a special case as each householder completed the forms therefore it could be argued that the form is Crown Copyright, but the details hand written on the form are the copyright of the householder or his/her heir if deceased.
However there is a complication as I believe the OP is really concerned with the images rather than the data. In that case it could be argued that the copyright of the image belongs to the company who scanned the image, due to the skill of scanning each separate image, rather than simply digitising a film with a film scanner.

Parish register are the copyright of the incumbent of the parish (if it still exists) though in some cases that may be administered by the diocese Archive which may indeed be the County Archive.
Wills are the copyright of the deceased person who wrote the will, the archive who holds the will is not the copyright holder no matter what they may claim unless it was specifically passed to them.

As for fair use that changes if the image is published online as it is not simple one use of the snippet but possibly thousands of uses of the image as each time it is viewed counts.

The problem with copyright law is it is not only complex but open to interpretation and challenge and case law has changed with different challenges.
In some cases the law changes not because of the quality of the challenge but the ability of the copyright owner being willing or able to fund the defence of the challenge.
Cheers
Guy