Genealogists Heads Up re Proposed Bylaw: No Photographs in Cemetery!

Thanks to Murray Pletsch for bringing this to our attention. Polite action is called for - tell them NO!

Cause for Concern...

It has come to our attention that the City of Waterloo in Ontario Canada is considering
implementing a bylaw that would ban photography at all municipal cemeteries.

The proposed bylaw: "Photography: No person shall cause or permit the taking
of any photographic or video imaging within any Cemetery except with the
prior permission of the Manager."

This would mean that as of September 1st, no one would be allowed to take
photographs or video in any municipally owned cemetery operated by the City
of Waterloo without prior permission.

In other words, you could not take a photograph or video of a headstone you
own without prior permission. Or a photograph / video of a loved ones
headstone. Or request that someone take a photograph / video on your behalf
without prior permission. The bylaw does not provide guidelines for granting
or denying permission, only that the manager would decide.

Approval of this bylaw would also set a precedent for other municipalities
in Ontario to follow.

It would have a major impact on genealogy, and not just in terms of projects
like ours (think of the number of cemetery photographs you currently use in
your personal genealogy research!)

There are also multiple businesses and organizations that use cemetery
photographs, including the government.

Luckily there is time to stop this bylaw from being approved, and your help
is need to make this happen.

The bylaw changes were submitted to The Bereavement Authority of Ontario for
approval. The BAO are the ones who ultimately decide if cemetery bylaws will
be approved.

Before September 1st, please take a moment and send them a polite written
message to let them know what you think about this bylaw and how it would
impact you personally.

Bereavement Authority of Ontario
Email: info@thebao.ca
Telephone: 647-483-2645
Toll Free: 844-493-6356
Fax: 647-748-2645
Mail: Bereavement Authority of Ontario, 100 Sheppard Avenue East, Suite 505,
Toronto, ON M2N 6N5

Need more info? The cemetery bylaws were discussed by the City of Waterloo
Council at their July 24th meeting. A copy of the agenda can be read here:
http://www.waterloo.ca/en/calendar/council/Details.aspx?Id=d11b5d9f-7c1a-4326-9fde-8369970131fa

The proposed cemetery bylaws are on pages 101-177, the clause regarding
photography is on page 113.

Heads Up! Bloggers Check for Unauthorized Use of Your Content

One of my Legacy Family Tree articles
published in its entirety without my permission

Copyright issues have raised their head again. The following website, TORGGG Blogger: Toronto Galician Genealogy Group, has many bloggers' articles on its site. Perhaps you gave permission for your work to be republished there. I did not give that permission, yet two of my articles written for Legacy Family Tree were found there. 

My articles and images, including graphics I created personally, were taken without permission and published on TORGGG. My name was also missing as the author. 

Other bloggers have reported on Facebook that their unauthorized work is also found on the site. I wrote to the owner, Jim Onyschuk, jodanji@rogers.com.ed to demand he remove all articles written by me which he published without my permission. 

There is an article outlining how to write such an initial take-down letter at Lorelle

In the one and only email I send to the person who used my content without my permission, I give 24 hours as the timeline in which such articles must be removed or a fee for the article must be paid to me. 

I make it clear to the webmaster that if one of these actions is not take when the 24 hour deadline rolls around, I will file a DMCA notice with his webhost, any ad services he uses such as Google AdSense and feed services if they are used. And I do it. I don't hesitate, I don't give second chances, I file the DMCA notice. I then copy the webmaster on my filing of the notice.  

You can file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice by following instructions on How to File a DMCA complaint. 

My word of caution for today is to go and check out the TORGGG Blogger site if you have concerns that your work might have been taken and published without your permission.  

I won't link to the site and give him a nice backlink. Just use your favourite search engine to search for TORGGG BLOGGER or copy the link you can see in the graphic above.  If your work is there and you don't want it there, please do follow up with a takedown email to the webmaster or a DMCA complaint or both.

Copyright issues, splogs and using content without permission is not okay! We must all fight this attitude that if it's on the internet it's free for the taking. Anything published online is copyright to the author the second it is published. Don't let your rights be trampled on. Don't let your work be devalued.