Eddie Gorham

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Eddie Gorham [send private message]

Biography

I am a professional songwriter/publisher who lives near Nashville. Family genealogy is one of my favorite pastimes. The primary family surnames that I am researching are: White, Laney, Gorham, Rice, Adams, Adcock, Bean, Berry, Denton, Dunagan, Farrar, Field, Finney, Gaines, Griffin, Haisten, and Hooper, as well as Jefferson, Nelms, Pollard, and Walker.

In the spirit of co-operation and solidarity, My Ancestry Tree is UNLOCKED and open for the benefit of others. I am trying to FIND relatives, not avoid them.

Hoarding or otherwise hiding documentation and old family photos in a locked tree is not only disadvantageous, it is inconsiderate of your own extended family, and benefits no one but yourself. Please do NOT waste my time inviting me to your super-secret locked tree. Especially if your 9th G grandmother was an Indian princess.

And I hate to come across as a complete ass, but we're all adults here, and this is really important:

Many make a big fuss in respect to what they mistakenly perceive as 'copyrighted' material. Since I am in the publishing business, it is my job to be intimately familiar with copyright law. Proper copyrighting is a legal course of action which requires paperwork and monetary outlay, it is not magically granted by the Copyright Wizard.

The act of copyright is carried out in order to protect the rights to authorship, and to prevent unauthorised individuals from profitting off of another individual's personal body of work. In short, if an individual is not the originator of the work in question, they retain no legal copyright to said work. Mere physical possession of another individual's work does not entitle said holder to any form of copyright.

Regarding copyrighted work which originates with a living individual, the Fair Use Doctrine, Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act states:

"The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phono records or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

"In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use, the factors to be considered shall include the purpose, and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature, or is for nonprofit educational purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount, and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work."

In other words: unless an unauthorised individual is using a legally copyrighted work to make an undue profit, there is no copyright infringement; and unless you are the creator of the work, and have subsequently filed the appropriate paperwork, you retain no legal claim to copyright.

Sorry to be so long winded - but somebody had to say it.

Sources

• Proverbs 21:13 'Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out yet not be answered.'