The controversy over Ancestry’s “Internet Biographical Collection” set the genea-blogosphere awhirl. Hardly any active genea-blogger failed to weigh in on this issue. And that fact apparently carried some influence with The Generations Network. Additionally, readers and commenters were active. Although I usually don’t swell on such matters, GeneaBlogie received more visits on this controversy than we’ve had on any other issue. Six visits in the last twenty-four hours came from Ancestry’s corporate headquarters.
Archive for August 30, 2007
Reminder: Carnival Deadline is September 1
Get your submissions in before you leave for the long weekend! The submission site is here.
1890 Census Series Delayed
Our promised series on the 1890 census has been delayed while we reacted to and researched the issues concerning the Ancestry.com caching matter. It will be posted on Friday.
Ancestry.com Removes "Internet Biographical Database"
I’ve just come home from work to find messages and blogs stating that Ancestry.com has removed their “Internet Biographical Collection” which cached the work of other genealogists without permission or credit.
Ancestry clearly underestimated the reaction of the genealogy community when they created this blunder. Their announcement says that the database is removed “for the time being.”
One lesson I hope Ancestry comes away with is that they need to collaborate with this community–they can’t just rub roughshod over the community without paying a price.
I’ve been talking with some of my academic and practicing colleagues and next week, we’ll present a series on the legal issues involved here.
