Genealogy Quality Code
Acceptable copying
- Basic data from any Category 1 databases as long as the source is listed.
- Basic, non-value-added, factual data (eg names, dates, and places drawn from readily available public records) may be copied from individual records in Category 2 or Category 3 databases, as long as:
- their reproduction doesn’t cut across the interests of the original creator (as it would if eg the format allowed third parties to reconstruct the whole or a significant part of the original)
- the source is listed
- the creator has given permission for anything other than small-scale reproduction (anything more than, say, 0.1 per cent of the total dataset).
- Value-added material – such as transliterations, linkages of records, photographs, explanatory notes – may be copied from a Category 3 database, as long as:
- It’s only on a small scale (for example, a few individual entries or a single family tree)
- the source is listed
Unacceptable practice
- Value-added material may not be copied from Category 3 databases, except:
- on the scale, in aggregate, of a few individual entries or one family tree, and
- with the express permission of the original creator
- Material, whether value-added or otherwise, may not be reproduced from a Category 2 database or Category 3 database in a format that would allow third parties to copy or reconstruct the whole or a significant part of the original.
- Data properly attributed to the original source may not be directly edited or amended without the creator’s permission: any doubts about the data should be recorded in an appended note.
- Value-added data may not be commercially exploited by others in a way that undermines the original creator’s intentions (be they to charge, or to make the data available gratis)