Can I upload an obituary from newspapers.com to Wikitree, yes or no?

+5 votes
298 views

I clipped and added an obituary to a profile from Newspapers.com. If this is not allowed, please let me know. The legalese on Ancestry and Newspapers.com is clear as mud. K.I.S.S. answers would be appreciated :)

WikiTree profile: Myrt Carter
in Policy and Style by Tami Neilson G2G2 (2.3k points)

2 Answers

+9 votes

The short answer is: probably not allowed.

Copyright matters are, unfortunately, almost never very simple. We can't see a legible image of the clipping or read the citation you included about the source for it because the privacy settings on Myrtle's profile prevent it. But given that she died sometime in the 1990s what is clear is that there's valid copyright protection in effect.

Somewhere. We just don't know where. The obit could have been written by a family member, by the funeral home, or by a stringer at the newspaper. Whoever actually wrote the obit has the copyright. If a newspaper reporter wrote it, then it was probably a "work for hire" and the newspaper has copyright.

To complicate things further, we can't see where Myrtle died and so don't know where the obit was written, but laws differ somewhat between countries. Her parents died in Canada, so if the obituary was written and published in Canada, the copyright jurisdiction would be Canada. Title 17 U.S. Code and precedents that have resulted from court cases in the U.S. won't apply...and of the 5% I know of copyright law, that makes up 95% of it. wink

If you're uncertain about the authorship, copyright status, and provenance of the obit, the safest bet is not to post an image of it. The information contained within the obituary, however, can't be copyright protected, only the actual written article can be. So you could certainly restate the relevant facts (leaving off names of the living, of course, since naming them would run counter to WikiTree privacy policies), include that text in Myrtle's biography, and cite the details of the obituary as published in the newspaper.

by Edison Williams G2G6 Pilot (446k points)

Considering Rob's answer and Lucy's additional comment, a quick clarification. When I looked at the profile at the time I responded, a digital image of the newspaper clipping had been uploaded, was being used as the profile's primary photo, and there was no citation to the Newspapers.com clipping. I was answering based on the way I saw the digital image of the obit being used.

I also agree with Rob that transcribing sections of the obituary would probably be just fine. However, "fair use" under U.S. law and "fair dealing" under Canadian law aren't quite the same things and have different qualifying requirements. Since "fair dealing" was written into the Copyright of Canada, how it's addressed/treated has been modified at least four times: 1921, 1993, 1997, and 2012. In some ways it's actually more lenient than the U.S. version, but it's still worth reviewing before transcribing copyrighted material.

+10 votes
Since the link to the clip can be viewed by anyone the normal approach is to add a citation to the WikiTree profile with a link to the clipping. You can transcribe any parts that seem relevant (I think this would be allowed under "fair use") and include this transcription in either the citation or in the biography.
by Rob Pavey G2G6 Pilot (213k points)
Here is a citation of that article produced by WikiTree Sourcer:

<ref>
'''1995 Newspaper''':
"Newspapers.com"<br/>
Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) Tue, Oct 3, 1995, page 26<br/>
{{Newspapers.com|126514274}} (accessed 16 June 2023)
</ref>

Another option:

* ''Times Colonist'' (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada); digital images, ''Newspapers.com'' ({{Newspapers.com|126514274}} : accessed June 2023); citing "Obituaries," Tuesday, 3 October 1995, pg. 26, col. 2.

Related questions

+5 votes
1 answer
+3 votes
1 answer
+4 votes
2 answers
143 views asked Oct 27, 2020 in Policy and Style by Lori Dosser G2G6 (8.5k points)
+3 votes
1 answer
+8 votes
1 answer
102 views asked Dec 6, 2023 in Genealogy Help by Anonymous Reed G2G6 Pilot (184k points)
+4 votes
2 answers
+7 votes
2 answers
744 views asked Jan 10, 2023 in Genealogy Help by Jim Richardson G2G Astronaut (1.0m points)

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...