Worst possible outcome

[bleckie]

Hi All

I see ancestry are appealing to information commissioner about not getting access to Scottish records why should we hand them over to an American venture capital firm
Yours aye
BruceL

[Forfarian]

Absolutely agree. All revenue from Scottish records should come back for investment in Scotland, not go to line the pockets of the owners of the world's largest repository of genealogical disinformation.

They'd do better to get hold of records from US states where they aren't currently readily available. And/or to set up a system for getting rid of wrong information.

[RJ_Paton]

I agree.

[David Nicoll]

I agree, they don’t seem to be very fussed about copyright either. They allow users to breach it every day.

[Andy J2022]

I agree, they don't seem to be very fussed about copyright either. They allow users to breach it every day.

I am not here to defend Ancestry but I think you have perhaps misunderstood how the law of copyright works. Ancestry make it fairly clear in their terms and conditions where they stand on copyright with regard to material submitted by their users. You can read them here: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/c/legal/copyright-policy

As the terms mention, the website (including ancestry.co.uk) operates under the US law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This specifically removes the company from liability  (ie it can't be sued) if one of its users publishes something which infringes someone else's copyright. The condition for this is that they don't exercise prior editorial control over such material.  The dispute remains between the copyright owner and the alleged infringer. Ancestry are not even able to intervene or arbitrate in a dispute, but have to follow the DMCA procedure to retain immunity from liability.

As it sounds as if you think some other users have infringed your copyright you should follow the procedure laid out in the site's terms and conditions. However before doing so may I suggest that you check the provisions of section 29 of the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, and make sure that you have adequate proof that, not only are you the legal owner of the copyright, but also that copyright still applies to the work in question. For example photographs taken before 1 January 1945 in the UK or by a UK citizen, are now out of copyright (see section 21 of the 1911 Copyright Act)

[David Nicoll]

I think you have just made my point for me.

[Forfarian]

As the terms mention, the website (including ancestry.co.uk) operates under the US law

That statement on its own is quite enough to justify a refusal by UK agencies to hand over records collected and managed under UK law.

[Steve3180]

I must admit to be split on this. I am no fan of Ancestry and giving them access to all the Scottish records would not be ideal.
BUT
It would give us subscription based access to records.
I have many thousands of ancestors around the Newton and Inveresk parishes going back to the start of records, a lot of whom have the same names (20 Abraham Moffats, 17 Alexander Moffats). The only way to sort this lot out properly is to look at a lot of records which under the present system is prohibitively expensive.
I find it illustrative of the mindset of the NRS that their defense in this case was mostly based on the effect on their "income stream". That's us, and that's how they see us, as a cash cow to be milked.
The management of this organization has been pretty awful for a number of years now, witness leaking roof, failed software updates, glacially slow drip of new records being released, delayed census release.
My hope is that this will give them or the Scottish Government a kick up the pants to properly fulfill their mandate to "collect, preserve, AND PUBLISH" Scottish records. My expectation is somewhat different.   

[bleckie]

The only delayed census release that I can remember was the 1921 one and if you remember that was in the middle of COVID.
As for Scotland's people being a cash cow I find if you do your homework it is probably the cheapest and most accurate of all the records as you get to see the original.
Yours Aye
BruceL