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Thursday, August 27, 2015

I’m removing a blog post image… because it was the right thing to do!

 
Senate Patents & Copyright Committee, 4/9/24

Exactly one week ago I published a blog post about a newspaper article I found via GenealogyBank.com.  You can see this blog post HERE.  It was a very popular blog piece seen by over a thousand viewers, and I had comments from friends, readers and seasoned bloggers on Facebook about this article.  However, only one person, a new blogger, noticed something important about this blog post.

She wrote to me via email that as a new blogger she was very interested in “how you were able to post a newspaper article from Genealogy Bank.  I thought that they owned the copyright.  Did you have to contact Genealogy Bank for permission?”  These are all wonderful questions, and I used to think about this a lot as a new blogger, too.

However, as a seasoned genealogy blogger I forgot that certain online services, like Ancestry, make it easy to share images.  Ancestry has share buttons that allow you to email, blog, use Pinterest, and other social media.  I knew that this was the case because I had researched and blogged about it HERE. 

Genealogy Bank doesn’t have those share buttons or easy access to sharing images.  I had signed up for Genealogy Bank years and years ago, and I had forgotten that they carefully control their images and even transcriptions of their newspaper images.  As soon as I received that email from the new blogger, I went to my favorite resource for checking copyright.  Not Google.  It was Judy Russell’s blog The Legal Genealogist, where I found this post “Terms of use: GenealogyBank”  HERE  at this link http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2012/08/23/terms-of-use-genealogybank/


This is a gentle reminder to frequently review the terms of use of the resources you use online.  
And, to remember, if there is not an easy “share button”, you probably shouldn’t be sharing!

So, I’m removing the image from HERE, and also removing most of the transcribed text.  Short excerpts are OK. 

I’d love to hear from other bloggers and blog readers about this.  What are your thoughts?

The image above is "Senate Patents & Copyright Committee, 4/9/24", Library of Congress (National Photo Company Collection), call number LC-F81-29769, from the website http://www.loc.gov/item/npc2008006075/ accessed August 23, 2015.

UPDATE -  See in the comments below that Emily Moore has posted a link to another one of Judy Russell's posts that has updated information on GenealogyBank permissions on images http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2013/07/26/genealogybank-permissions-clarified/ 


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "I’m removing a blog post image… because it was the right thing to do!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 27, 2015, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/08/im-removing-blog-post-image-because-it.html :  accessed [access date]).

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12 comments:

  1. EmilyAugust 27, 2015 at 5:35 AM

    Genealogy Bank changed its Terms of Use slightly, and now gives instructions on how to ask permission to use something from their site. http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2013/07/26/genealogybank-permissions-clarified/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeanne Bryan InsalacoAugust 27, 2015 at 6:13 AM

    They take much time to make all available to us and it's such a credit to them for us to share and advertise their site. It seems like as long as they are credited, it should be ok. Hopefully they are following suit like Ancestry. If we don't share info, the history becomes lost and the blogś truly keep it going.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pam CarterAugust 27, 2015 at 12:52 PM

    i wasn't able to decode the legalese on Newspapers.com so I sent them an email asking if I could use an image (clipping) on my blog. At first they seemed a little leery and asked lots of questions about my intentions. I replied with a link to my blog and received permission to use what I wanted. It was a fast turnaround once I sent the link to my blog. I will send the link in the initial request in the future. I think they were making sure I was legit and not going to just copy copious amounts of content and repost it. They saw it would give the good publicity from sharing a few cool things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather Wilkinson RojoAugust 27, 2015 at 2:53 PM

      Thanks for your comment about Newspapers.com, Pam. I once got permission from a museum to post a document on my blog, but only after they looked at my blog and saw that it was non-profit and family based. It was a similar situation. I'm going to try contacting Genealogybank, so stay tuned! Maybe that image will be back up on my blog!

      Delete
  4. AnonymousAugust 28, 2015 at 5:30 AM

    While I applaud your concern for copyright, Heather, which is a concern I share, I don't understand why any online service that you have to pay for can copyright LOC materials-which are public. I would access the same image at the Library of Congress and credit their collection.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousAugust 28, 2015 at 5:34 AM

    Here is the original image at the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2008006075/. No restrictions. Services like Genealogybank and Newspapers.com make money just because researchers don't go to the source!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather Wilkinson RojoAugust 28, 2015 at 5:47 AM

      Donna, the image in question is the newspaper article image from GenealogyBank, ( Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), Saturday, November 16, 1940, "Many Public Bequests Made in Will of Salem Woman", page 15). I originally posted this newsclipping, but have since removed the image. The photo of the Senate Patents and Copyright committe was from the Library of Congress website, and has the correct attribution at the bottom of the blog post.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousAugust 28, 2015 at 6:07 AM

    Oh, sorry, Heather--still drinking my morning coffee! Still wondering about a newspaper clipping however--not available at any of the free digitized newspaper sites? The credit should go to the Boston Herald, not some service that reproduces their content.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jana Iverson LastAugust 28, 2015 at 11:59 AM

    Heather,

    I'd like to let you know that your blog post is listed in my Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2015/08/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-august-28.html

    Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  8. ScotSueAugust 31, 2015 at 9:31 AM

    Copyright is such a complex subject, both sides of the Atlantic and I am very wary of what I use from the web. . I am amazed at a blog I regularly read, where there is never any reference or acknowledgment to the source of the images which are obviously taken from magazines, museum websites etc. Thank you for raising this issue, as it is one we should all be aware of.

    Family History Fun

    ReplyDelete