Ancestry Cached My Files!

NONE OF THIS IS ABOUT WHAT IS LEGAL;

IT IS ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT!

This past week (Aug 2007), Ancestry.com (THE GENERATIONS NETWORK) announced a new database, called the "INTERNET BIOGRAPHICAL COLLECTION." That means they were harvesting (STEALING COPYING & KEEPING) files from the internet and saving them as cached files. If I dropped dead, they would have my files to sell. Even I didn't drop dead and decided, instead, to remove one of my files, it wouldn't do any good because the file would still be in Ancestry.com's cache. [And it should be noted that the name of the collection is a misnomer: most or all files were taken and not simply those containing biographies.]

"We cached individual Web pages in an effort to preserve history - if a Web page featuring important family history information were taken down in the future, a cached version would still be available."

- Anna Fechter, The Generations Network

Now, where I come from, we call that STEALING (That's like claiming they broke into my house and "took" my diamonds so they wouldn't be stolen!). However, after the threatening comments I have received from nameless goons, I am curtailing the use of the word STEALING because it is actually a LEGAL term. Instead, I will say that Ancestry.com COPIED MY files and POSTED them on their site. They claim to have shelved the collection "for the time being" but I STILL find my GenWeb files there, albeit in another collection. - So, as far as I am concerned, they are still using my files on the Ancestry.com site.

But here is a GREAT EXAMPLE (one of MANY I could give) of how Ancestry.com offers our FREE work to LURE people to pay for an Ancestry.com subscription. Sure, Ancestry.com seems like the most generous company in the world, as they offer OUR hard work as the BAIT! YES, they own Rootsweb now but I never signed off to give them my files. In these cemetery files alone they are offering about 500 cemeteries from my sites, including thousands of photos.

THE BAIT

Access Genealogy - A Free Genealogy Resource

I WILL PRESENT MY OWN FILES!

THERE IS ONLY ONE INTERNET AND MY FILES ARE ALREADY THERE!

I maintain that ANCESTRY.COM (The Generations Network) does NOT have a right to determine the fate of files that belong to other people. Copyright issues are a matter of law and the files on the Internet can be fought about in court on a file by file basis.

ETHICS on the Internet is every bit as important as LEGALITIES. I would not take a paper clip that didn't belong to me... and it is maddening that someone would TAKE something from me. - No person with integrity and values would copy and post things that someone else spent time, money and effort on, often for many years. - This is about RESPECT and COMMON DECENCY.

The motto of my work is "A SERVICE, NOT A BUSINESS." In contrast, the motto of Ancestry.com/THE GENERATIONS NETWORK is all about exploiting the poor and unsuspecting, including MINOR children, in order to make a profit.

YES. If you come across the names, addresses and telephone numbers of your minor children or grandchildren on Ancestry.com, don't expect them to remove them from their "public documents" because they will NOT... under any circumstances. They do not reveal which "public document" they got the info from but it has to be from a business, like an insurance company.

I am nearly sixty years old and I have a life to live. To waste my time and energy being outraged takes me away from the priorities in my life. IT IS SIMPLY NOT WORTH IT! - And if I were to change the URLs of my sites, it would be a terrible inconvenience to too many people.

Since I am an idealist, I believe that in the end, PEOPLE ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR MISDEEDS. I hope that will hold true for the crew at THE GENERATIONS NETWORK, whom I consider completely unscrupulous!

I have received hundreds of emails but this is a good one: "If the internet were an ocean, Ancestry would be JAWS, gobbling up everything in its path..."

I CANCELED my subscription to Ancestry.com and promptly signed up with FOOTNOTE, a partnership of the LATTER DAY SAINTS CHURCH, the NATIONAL ARCHIVES and the ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY. I will take my chances with them!

TIME TO MOVE ON! -- I only hope the public will SPEAK in any way they can to STOP all unethical - and illegal - conduct on the Internet.