Copyright Information for Allen INGenWeb Project

Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. Copied from the What Does Copyright Protect? at the U.S. Copyright Office FAQ.

Allen County INGenWeb Project is part of the volunteer INGenWeb Project and USGenWeb Project providing Free online genealogical information since 1996.

We attempt to provide current links to online sources, but "link rot" is a given on the internet when pages edit or delete information. If you find errors or omissions please Contact Allen INGenWeb.

January 13, 2024 post by The Library of Congress on Facebook:

Each January 1st, a new class of creative works enters the public domain, which means they are no longer protected by copyright.

This year's class includes "Steamboat Willie," the first film with sound to feature the characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse! Registered with the Copyright Office (which is part of the Library of Congress) in 1928, the film launched Walt Disney's hugely successful career.

Read more about copyright and the works that just entered the public domain this month: Lifecycle of Copyright: 1928 Works in the Public Domain

Interesting rant about copyright.

December 22, 2023 post by Decivilized on Facebook:

"They stole something from you. For decades, they stole it. That thing they stole? Your entire culture. For all of human history, works created in living memory entered the public domain every year. 40 years ago, that stopped.

First in 1976, and then again in 1998, Congress retroactively extended copyright's duration by 20 years, for all works, including works whose authors were unknown and long dead, whose proper successors could not be located. Many of these authors were permanently erased from history as every known copy of their works disappeared before they could be brought back into our culture through reproduction, adaptation and re-use (copyright is "strict liability," meaning that even if you pay to clear the rights to a work from someone who has good reason to believe they control those rights, if they're wrong, you are on the hook as an infringer, and the statutory damages run to six figures).

Works that are still in our cultural currents 50 or 70 or 90 years after their creation are an infinitesimal fraction of all the works we create as a species. But these works are – by definition – extraordinarily important to our culture. The creators who made these works were able to plunder a rich public domain of still-current works as inputs to their own enduring creations. The slow-motion arson attack on the public domain meant that two generations of creators were denied the public domain that every other creator in the history of the human race had enjoyed.

As 2019 drew nearer, the copyright resistance who had fought over this grew nervous, then…elated. Was Congress actually going to heed the evidence of a decades-long failed experiment and decline to extend copyright again?"…

Pluralistic: 2024's public domain is a banger (20 Dec 2023)

What is Copyright? posted Oct 30, 2019 by the U.S. Copyright Office published January 16, 2019 on YouTube.
Learn about what copyright involves, including what types of works are subject to copyright protection. Additional Resources: Circular 1 – Copyright Basics: https://copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf. For more information on Copyright, visit their website: https://copyright.gov/. See also their page What is Copyright?.

Copyright on the Internet posted Oct 30, 2019 by the U.S. Copyright Office published January 16, 2019 on YouTube.
Learn what to do when you find information on the Internet you would like to use. For more information on Copyright, visit their website: https://copyright.gov/

Public Domain

On January 1, 2023, works from 1927 enter the U.S. public domain from Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law .

  1. The Public Domain Review is dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas – focusing on works now fallen into the public domain, the vast commons of out-of-copyright material that everyone is free to enjoy, share, and build upon without restrictions. and registered in the UK as a Community Interest Company (#11386184), a category of company which exists primarily to benefit a community or with a view to pursuing a social purpose, with all profits having to be used for this purpose. Copied from their website: https://publicdomainreview.org/, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PublicDomainReview
  2. Welcoming 1927 to the Public Domain posted on January 1, 2023 by Alexis Rossi on the Internet Archive blog.
  3. After 1924 copyright gets complicated - see That 1923 date by  published November 30, 2016 on her Legal Genealogist blog.
  4. December 27, 2022 post by Internet Archive on Facebook:

    Wondering what's moving into the public domain in the US in just a few days? Our colleagues at Duke Law's Center for the Study of the Public Domain have published their annual review: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/

    Celebrate the public domain with us via virtual & in-person events on January 19 & 20: http://blog.archive.org/.../the-best-things-in-life-are.../

    Feeling creative? Participate in our Film REMIX contest: https://blog.archive.org/.../public-domain-day-2023.../

    Public Domain: Celebrating the Lifecycle of Copyright video by the U.S. Copyright Office published January 16, 2019 on YouTube.

    What is Public Domain? posted Dec 18, 2019 by U.S. Copyright Office on YouTube
    The public domain covers works not protected by copyright. Learn which works are in the public domain and how works become a part of it. For more information on Copyright, visit their website: https://copyright.gov/

    Fair Use

    Allen County INGenWeb Project welcomes the Fair Use of our web site and its contents for non-commercial research purposes when citing your sources. See the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index page and Columbia University Libraries Information Services Copyright Advisory Office Fair Use Checklist or Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors at Stanford University Libraries.

    Fair Use posted Oct 30, 2019 by U.S. Copyright Office on YouTube
    In this video, find out what "fair use" is and how it applies when you are looking to use a copyright-protected work. Learn the factors that go into evaluating whether or not a case meets fair use standards. Additional Resources: Fair Use Index: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/; For more information on Copyright, visit their website: https://copyright.gov/

    Additional Copyright Information

    1. Copyright Information at the USGenWeb Project
    2. 10 Big Myths about copyright explained by Brad Templeton originally 1994, updated 2008
    3. The Legal Genealogist blog by  has several Copyright topics including That 1923 date , Copyright and the lost letters, Copyright and the website, Copyright and the old family photo, Photos and the family homestead, Copyright and the obit, Copyright and the post-1963 obit, Copyright & the newspaper article.
    4. Can I Scan that Photo – Legally? Understanding Copyright and Fair Use by Jackie Jade published September 20, 2016 on OrganizingPhotos.com blog.
    5. Copyright and Fair Use - Stanford University Libraries - Videos on Fair Use
    6. Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States - is a regularly updated annual table of dates and terms at Cornell University. Recommended by The Legal Genealogist in her blog More on copyright and old letters published May 5, 2020.
    7. Citing Primary Sources Library of Congress - based on MLA-Style Citation Format and Chicago Citation Format.
    8. Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright - by U.S. Copyright Office
    9. Oral Interviews + Copyright -- Are You Using Best Practices? published March 13, 2014 on the National Genealogical Society blog.
    10. QuickLesson 15: Plagiarism—Five "Copywrongs" of Historical Writing by Elizabeth Shown Mills,  Evidence Explained: Historical Analysis, Citation & Source Usage (https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/quicklesson-15-plagiarism—five-copywrongs-historical-writing : [January 8, 2013]).
    11. United States Copyright Office has a list of factsheets
    12. Who Actually Owns Your Content When You Post It to the Web? by Dick Eastman published November 1, 2017 on his Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.
    13. March 10, 2023 post by Evidence Explained on Facebook:

      From our archives ... "Conference Presentations & Copyrights"

      "A history enthusiast, in an online forum that will go unnamed, was singing the praises of conference presentations for self-education. He noted the pros and cons of both live and recorded instruction. He spoke highly of the syllabus material some conferences provide, often numerous pages that distill the main points of each speaker’s presentation. All well and good. Then he plunged head first into the quagmire of legal rights: ... < read more >

      Conference Presentations & Copyrights

      Image Source: U.S. Copyright Office, "What is Copyright?" COPYRIGHT.GOV (https://www.copyright.gov/what-is-copyright/ : 10 March 2023).

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    Page updated: January 13, 2024