[Genealib] Ancestrybank clarification

[ancestrybank at ancestrybank.com]

Dear list,

I wanted to respond to comments made in a couple of posts and provide  
some clarification about Ancestrybank.com.  Ancestrybank.com is going  
after documents held in private hands - individuals.  It is not trying  
to obtain documents that are readily available to the public or public  
domain (aka libraries/clerk offices).  This is why we ask historical  
societies and others if they know of members that have documents to  
please inform them of this service.

If you personally own pre-1885 documents, you can archive your  
document images and earn from them.  The concept of the exclusive  
right to sell the document image is for the benefit of the document  
owner, the company, and visitors, so that what is being offered is not  
duplicated elsewhere as so many resources on the web are,  
deteriorating the value of the site as a resource that will offer  
something new to visitors (for example, there are a lot of places to  
find the same census document).  The person archiving their document  
image owns that image.  If they choose to make their image available  
elsewhere, that is perfectly fine, we would just remove it from the  
Ancestrybank database so that a person purchasing a document knows  
that the document image is new to them and can?t be found elsewhere ?  
which makes the site?s database more marketable and more beneficial to  
those archiving their personal collection.  To stress, a person has  
full control over their document images.

The site has nothing to do with trying to gain control of public  
domain historical documents.  The buyer of a document image is  
forbidden to distribute the image because the copyright belongs to the  
owner of the document image.  If people start distributing document  
images on their websites, it takes away from the effort that the  
document owner has put in to digitize and archive the document.   
Ancestrybank is simply a site that is trying to encourage people to  
make documents available to the public that they own by providing an  
incentive to archive and preserve them.  The site allows people to  
earn from their documents rather than taking someone else?s  
information submitted and repackaging it for sale without providing  
any benefit to the information owner.  Our goal is for the site to be  
recognized as a creative and hopefully innovative way to get access to  
genealogical information that might otherwise stay hidden in someone?s  
collection forever!

Thank you for taking the time to read,

Ryan McLemore
Ancestrybank.com

P.S. Please feel free to write anytime for greater clarification or  
just to talk about genealogy!  Genealogy is a great community and we  
are proud to be a part of that community.