I experienced identity theft by other means (theft of a laptop and wallets) and someone cleaned out my bank account then I had to prove to those dumb clucks at the bank that it wasn't me. How do you prove that you didn't clean out your own account? I had to tell the idiot bank manager to check the surveillance tapes. Shortly afterward, and after I made the suggestion, they implemented fingerprinting people who cashed checks. A little late.
The genealogy theft was from a former website. I should have clarified that. However, if people are posting all their genealogy data to a public website this could be a problem if it lists addresses, current and former, since it's not hard to track people down to where they currently live (FindUSA and other sites) with phone numbers. I heard years ago that one way to protect your creative work such as a manuscript was to mail it to yourself and not open it then use the postmark to prove the date it was written as a sort of copyright. I wonder if that is used anymore. I did use it for a story I wrote years ago, but since then it was trashed. So much for that idea. Probably wouldn't hold up in court anyway. Bill -----Original Message----- From: Ron Ferguson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 12:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Facebook & Images Bill, As a matter of fact you do have real copyright for your photos and things which you may have written, such as a Blog or Tutorial. It is yours from the day you created it/them. The data which we use cannot be copyrighted by us because it is not ours, it belongs to the government (eg. census data), or a company (eg. Ancestry's Index). Like you, I have published much information which has been found by others, as well as their photos, but never without their consent (hence some private pages on my site), and attributed in a manner agreed. By the way, I have never heard of identity theft, or similar, arising from genealogy sites. Ron Ferguson _____________________________________________________ Create your Website with Legacy, see Tutorials at: http://www.fergys.co.uk Includes the family tree for Alan J Grimshaw http://www.fergys.co.uk/Grimshaw/ For The Fergusons of N.W. England http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/fergys/ ____________________________________________________ William Boswell wrote: > Ron: . > > That's a huge problem on the internet where young "adults" who grew > up in the technology age seem to think that anything on the internet > is free for the taking. I also use something similar to the UK > Creative Commons License, but would much prefer a real copyright. > However, that doesn't seem to stop the internet thieves these days. > > I have been a victim of genealogy data and identity theft in ways > where profit was the motive so I no longer post my information > freely. I also agree with others that posting all your data from > Legacy to FB or other social websites is a recipe for disaster > especially if it includes living people. You would need their > permission first prior to posting otherwise there could be identity > theft issues. I ask permission first before I even post living > person information to a privatized site like Ancestry.com because > they and other genealogy sites do backups and even if you delete your > site, they still have your data. I found this out after Ancestry > bought out Rootsweb's and data that I deleted years before ended up > on Ancestry.com after the buyout. So private isn't always > private--not these days anyway. > > Bill > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ron Ferguson [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 6:42 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Facebook & Images > > Tom, > > Since you can't link the photos to Legacy, exactly what are you > thinking of > doing, eg. copying the photos and putting them into Legacy? You > clearly do > not own these photographs, so for the moment forget ethics, the > copyright > for those pictures belong to the person who took them, or to whom that > person assigned the copyright. You do intend to publish, you say > "...to > include it all in a book of descendants to be handed out at the next > family > reunion", that is publishing, even if you do not charge. > > If I have misunderstood, then please excuse me, but if anybody did > that with > my photos, without my express consent, I would hit the roof. When I > allow > use of my photos, I do so only on the condition that my copyright is > explicitly stated. My website operates under the Creative Commons > License, > which subject to certain conditions, allows free use for the > reproduction > and distribution of my information, but I have specifically exempted > my > photos and reserved their copyright. > > As I understand the Facebook conditions, in loose terms, when > uploading a > photo onto Facebook you give Facebook a free license to use that > photo for > any of their activities, but nobody else. > > Ron Ferguson > > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: > > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp _____________________________________________________ Create your Website with Legacy, see Tutorials at: http://www.fergys.co.uk Includes the family tree for Alan J Grimshaw http://www.fergys.co.uk/Grimshaw/ For The Fergusons of N.W. England http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/fergys/ Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/ronfergy ____________________________________________________ Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
