It’s theft
Yet another case of genealogical theft is being reported in our community.
This time, it’s the website GenealogyInTime Magazine reporting that some of its authored, copyrighted content is being reproduced, almost word for word, in the newsletter of another website.
In its post, “Let’s Talk About Plagiarism,” GenealogyInTime showed screenshots of a newsletter sent out by email from a different website, and invited readers to compare the contents of the newsletter to earlier articles on its website:
• For the first one, “We encourage readers to click on our link and compare the introductory text between the two articles. They are essentially the same.”1
For the second one, “it is the same article as one we just published on our website. This article was copied in the email newsletter just two days after we published the original article on our website. We would show more of the copied article but we couldn’t get all of it in one screen shot.”2
The Legal Genealogist has nothing to add to this invitation by GenealogyInTime: read the post and decide for yourself.
What I do want to note is simply this:
Taking someone else’s work and using it ourselves — even if it’s not for commercial gain — isn’t sharing.
It’s theft.
Oh we can wrap it up in fancy words like “plagiarism”: “the act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person.”3 And it is surely that when we make no effort to credit the person who did all the research and all the hard work. Anybody who’s suffering from even a momentary confusion as to just what plagiarism is can get a great education by reading Elizabeth Shown Mills’ “QuickLesson 15: Plagiarism—Five ‘Copywrongs’ of Historical Writing.”4
We could go even further and call it copyright infringement: “The unauthorized use of a work that violates the owners’ copyrights (their rights to exclusive use of the work).”5 And it is surely that as well. Even though it isn’t necessary, under U.S. law or Canadian law (GenealogyInTime is a Canadian website), GenealogyInTime has a copyright notice on every one of its pages, to put every reader on notice that the content is copyrighted.
And if the law alone wasn’t enough, the website explains itself clearly in its terms of use. Those terms are straightforward. There’s no room for others to say they didn’t understand the limits:
All of our content is 100% original. Do not copy, reproduce, translate or upload any content from our website or Newsletter to a blog or another website without our explicit written approval. If you like something on our website, simply talk about it and provide a link to our website.6
But using fancy terms obscures what’s really going on so very often in our community.
What we’re seeing, all too often, is theft. Somebody stealing somebody else’s work: somebody else’s words, somebody else’s photographs.
And it’s wrong.
It violates every ethics code our community has:
• The National Genealogical Society’s Standards For Sharing Information With Others notes that “responsible family historians consistently— identify the sources for all ideas, information and data from others, and the form in which they were received, recognizing that the unattributed use of another’s intellectual work is plagiarism.”7
• The ethics statement of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies provides that “If data presented relies on work already previously undertaken, the credit for such work should be given to the originator…”8
• The code of ethics of the Board for Certification of Genealogists requires Boartd-certified genealogists to pledge that: “I will not represent as my own the work of another. … In citing another’s work, I will give proper credit.”9
• The code of ethics of the Association of Professional Genealogists requires members to promise to “fully and accurately cite references; and … (g)ive proper credit to those who supply information and provide assistance.”10
All of us, as responsible genealogists, individually and as a group, can act to keep on the straight and narrow path here.
First and foremost, in our own work, we need to cite our sources even in our own private research notes or genealogy database entries. That will keep us from even inadvertantly passing off someone else’s work as our own. Someone else’s work should never be incorporated into our own without credit being given.
Secondly, when we want to use that work for publication — and that includes even sharing it with our families and friends, we will often need to ask permission since in many cases our use goes beyond what the law allows as fair use.
And thirdly, we need to stop looking the other way. It’s time for our community as a whole to stop thinking of this as “just sharing” and to start yelling, “Stop, thief!” We need to stop tolerating it and excusing it when someone copies someone else’s work.
Because it’s not sharing.
It’s theft.
SOURCES
- “Let’s Talk About Plagiarism,” GenealogyInTime Magazine (http://www.genealogyintime.com/ : accessed 3 Nov 2014). ↩
- Ibid. ↩
- Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.m-w.com : accessed 3 Nov 2014), “plagiarism.” ↩
- Elizabeth Shown Mills, “QuickLesson 15: Plagiarism—Five ‘Copywrongs’ of Historical Writing,” Evidence Explained: Historical Analysis, Citation & Source Usage (https://www.evidenceexplained.com/ : accessed 3 Nov 2014). ↩
- Wex, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex : accessed 3 Nov 2014), “infringement (of copyright).” ↩
- “Let’s Talk About Plagiarism,” GenealogyInTime Magazine (http://www.genealogyintime.com/ : accessed 3 Nov 2014). ↩
- National Genealogical Society, Standards For Sharing Information With Others, PDF (http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/ : accessed 3 Nov 2014). ↩
- “IAJGS Ethics for Jewish Genealogists,” International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (http://www.iajgs.org/ : accessed 3 Nov 2014). ↩
- “Code of Ethics and Conduct,” Board for Certification of Genealogists (http://www.bcgcertification.org : accessed 3 Nov 2014). This code is also followed by Accredited Genealogists pursuant to the Professional Ethics Agreements of the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists. ↩
- “Code of Ethics,” Association of Professional Genealogists (http://www.apgen.org : accessed 30 Mar 2014). ↩
This idea of copyright protection seems simple enough. I always wonder what that person who is stealing the work is thinking. Or if that person is thinking.
I suspect the persons involved in this sort of thing aren’t thinking at all about the rights of others. “It’s sharing!” seems to be the battle cry if the subject comes up at all. But it’s NOT sharing when it’s somebody else’s work.
BUT unless its word for word. HOW DO YOU KNOW IT YOUR WORK. as I can do the same reasearch find out the same information. Just because I have the same information does not mean I STOLE if from someone else. we are not the only ones researching our family. if you three uncles and each has 5 kids. ……….
Facts can’t be copyrighted. It’s not the fact that someone is related to someone else that’s protected, it’s the way it’s said. There’s a difference between “John married Mary 1 January 1916” and “The New Year’s Day wedding of John and Mary in 1916 was a spectacle for the eyes and a feast for the belly, and…” The former is a fact and not copyrighted. The latter is an expression of the fact and is copyrighted.
“Stop looking the other way.” Amen! It is unpleasant to confront colleagues with ethics violations, but any Code of Ethics approaches uselessness without the genealogical community self-policing.
There are (a few) genealogists out there whose infractions are intentional–they want to “get ahead” and the only way they can “win” is to lie, cheat, and steal. If we look the other way, we are condoning their actions.
And it really is part of our own ethical obligations to say, we don’t approve, we won’t allow it.
I have frequently found my photos and writing reposted without attribution to me, but a recent one I discovered particularly irritated me. I had posted a biography of someone, compiled from hundreds of hours of my own research into this person and their relatives, on a website with clear terms-of-use explicitly protecting my copyright (though, as you note, US copyright law doesn’t even need that to be there). Someone copied and pasted it to their Ancestry tree and not only did not credit me nor the website, but called it an “obituary.” Perhaps since they were so willing to copy without credit, they really did believe that I had simply copied it from somewhere else without giving credit myself. I don’t understand why so many people fail to realize that these sorts of behaviors discourage others from sharing their research, writings, photos, etc., publicly.
Worth repeating, Liz: ” I don’t understand why so many people fail to realize that these sorts of behaviors discourage others from sharing their research, writings, photos, etc., publicly.” I don’t get it either. How hard is it to ask permission or give credit, really? It’s mindboggling.
I too have had biographies of descendants stolen from GenWeb and put on both Ancestry and Find A Grave with no mention of the website (which states copyright law) or me. I am the one that has done all the work for years and I have acknowledged those who have helped me…no mention of them either. I have not been able to get Ancestry to even acknowledge the problem and it now owns Find A Grave. I get little “surprises” when I am bouncing around to genealogical information sites…I find my own work on someone else’s site! I have given up trying to fight it.
Disheartening on several counts, especially that people give up trying to protect their own work.
A couple of weeks ago I tried to get information I had posted on findagrave removed from a tree at ancestry. ancestry gave me a findagrave email, they responded with a different email address for ancestry who gave me another address at findagrave who replied I should contact ancestry. So what happened was……….nothing. My photos and comments from findagrave are on an ancestry tree as someone else’s work right along with the photos I took in my parent’s living room and every photo I have from anyone who gave it to me. But there is no citation on any of them. She saved every one, used the add this person to my tree and then uploaded my photos to her tree. My tree is now private. I really didn’t want to do that but I also don’t intend to spend buku bucks and hours and hours of my time to make a tree for her. The new tree I have for my husband’s side is public but there are NO sources, documents or pictures. The names and dates are there. Anyone looking for these people will find them but they won’t find anything else.
As for the person who stole everything from me; I had the fun of finding out all the stuff about the family. If anyone asks me about them I can spout off the whole story. What can she do when her entire experience is copying information to her tree? And how much fun did she have? She doesn’t work on her tree and doesn’t answer messages sent by me or another cousin. Hit and run.
Big T, you can file a “DMCA Take Down” notice to Ancestry to get your original material removed from all trees. See the bottom of this page:
http://corporate.ancestry.com/about-ancestry/legal/
The point is that these people who are,…well lets just say it like it is, stealing others work do not see it that way. Most of them, do not understand what all the hoopla is all about. They talk about the genealogical arena as some “kum-by-ya” group of potential friends who are all willing, and in fact, anxious to share all they know with everyone and anyone else. They have never in their lives had to write something, design something, manufacture something so have no concept of the hours or time and research that go into something like that. And certainly have no concept of ownership. The issue that really annoys, well again, lets speak plainly….pisses me off, is when it is explained to them why they can not just copy and paste someone else’s work, they just blatantly wave a hand at you and make some comment about that “not making any sense, so I’ll continue to do as I please.”
It’s up to the rest of us, then, to make it quite clear this behavior won’t be tolerated.
I have recently noticed several items used, without permission, from my research and posted elsewhere with the lead-in “courtesy of.” It’s not “courtesy of” when I have not been asked!
Yep, that’s taking, not sharing.
It’s amazing – or perhaps frightening – how few people understand or want to understand the basics. When I suggested that requesting that someone “share” from a subscription site was perhaps not appropriate, I was attacked as if I was the villain.
I hear you. That’s why I wrote the post “Just say no” last year.
Thanks for that reminder, Judy.
🙂
What is happening in the genealogy community? I’m seeing more and more unethical actions on the part of genealogists…. the disregard of TOS when using websites, especially when it comes to newspaper archives… a few people in an online group using their paid subscription to find news articles for the non-subscribers is stealing. The disregard of protecting the genealogical research of others…harvesting online family trees and photos to sell to others as your “professional” work is stealing. The disregard of laws and ordinances when it comes to gaining access to cemeteries for photographing grave markers.. no matter how you look at it, unlawful entry into a cemetery is just wrong. The disregard of protecting governmental archives… taking home an archived record because “it’s part of my family history that needs to be preserved” is stealing. How does such unethical actions honor your ancestors? I think it is time for some old fashioned shame to be administered in the genealogy community.
I don’t think anything that you’re describing is new. Gustav Anjou was much more unethical (a downright fraud!) than the kind of penny-ante stuff we tend to see now. But the ease with which this behavior can be spread because of the internet and easy access to other people’s work, coupled with a real misunderstanding by some (who truly believe — however wrongly — that if it’s online, it’s fair game), is a problem. But new? Nope.
Most professional genealogists are very mindful of the ethics that should be followed. Please don’t lump the professionals in with the public at large under the group “genealogy community.” Professionals take their oath to uphold high standards. Copying others stories and compilations is covered under copyright law that is to be preserved. However, it is my understanding that original dates, names, places, old photos, diaries are facts or older materials that are not subject to copyright.
Facts can’t be copyrighted, correct. The way facts are presented — the way they’re expressed — can be.
It is not sharing, but it is also not theft. It is certainly plagiarism, and it is likely copright infringement. But neither of these is theft, and it only contributes to what Patry has appropriately called the “moral panic” associated with copyright when infringing copying is described as “theft.”
I understand the distinction you’re making, and you’re right that we don’t want to overstate the scope of copyright protection and turn it into an absolute bar on ever using someone else’s work. The Founding Fathers gave only limited protection to the creator of a work and wanted society as a whole to benefit; the fair use doctrine was later written in to ensure that. So certainly, from a legal perspective you’re correct. From a moral, or ethical, standpoint, however, the deliberate taking of someone else’s work and passing it off as your own for personal gain is so far over the line as to qualify as theft.
Judy,
Your comment about these theft behaviors discouraging sharing really hits home. I am so willing to share with people, but so many times I have seen the information I have shared then posted on various websites, without asking my permission. This in itself doesn’t bother me so much (it’s really not an ego thing), but I really would like to have them cite me as their source, so that if someone else sees the info in the future, they can come to me for any questions or clarifications as to my conclusions.
It’s only fair — and good practice! — to cite our sources, Lisa.
EXACTLY!! The person who stole everything from me won’t answer ancestry messages even from other people. So all the documents, photos and the facts I had written in MY words are now hers. When I saw MY words on her page I nearly choked. How impossible would it be for someone to use the exact words I used in the exact order I had mine with the punctuation matching mine? Safe to say a million to one? Obviously she is not practicing genealogy, she’s just playing.
So…is making a digital copy of a page from a deed or will book that FamilySearch.com has on it’s website or on a microfilm/fiche and then posting that copy on Ancestry.com a copyright infringement? Or a similar copy from Fold3, etc.? Not that I intend to post these on Ancestry.com, but I might want to do so on my own, password protected family site. It is neat to share original documents with their transcriptions with family but if doing so is illegal, obviously I will not do it. Thanks.
The answer, of course, is: it depends! If the item itself is still in copyright, then caution is essential. If it’s not, then reference to FamilySearch’s terms of use would be a good idea…