There’s some interesting discussion to be had over in the Reference area of the WJ community discussions on the sticky subjects of genealogy research, copyright, for-profit end uses of library “owned” materials.

Member peteswind3 started the conversation by asking:

What should one say to keep people from copying donated material to the genealogy department and putting the copied material in a book and selling it. Is there a standard form stating a person cannot copy and sell this material? Then what recourse can be taken if it is copied and sold.

This generated questions about whether libraries “own” the copyright on donated materials.

I’m imagine this topic is relevant for other parts of our collections—especially as self-publishing for-profit becomes more common. Please join the conversation and share your thoughts by commenting here in the blog or in the original discussion thread.