Copyright - Permission for fair use only for non-commercial purposes + Is WikiTree not-for-profit?

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Hello.

An online biographical dictionary provides permission for the fair use of their copyrighted material but only for noncommercial educational purposes. In the case of WikiTree and publishing such copyright material to a profile, is WikiTree a not-for-profit or a commercial entity? I need clarification on this, please, if anyone could help.

Thanks in advance,

Alison
in Policy and Style by Alison Kilpatrick G2G6 (6.1k points)

1 Answer

+15 votes
 
Best answer
by Eowyn Langholf G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)
selected by Alison Kilpatrick
Thank you, Eowyn.

cheers
Eowyn, sorry, I know this is an old thread.  But I'm wondering:  Just because WikiTree is a commercial entity, does that mean that all our work as individual WT members would be legally characterized as "commercial"?  When I create biographies, my personal intent is educational.

Hi Julie - I double checked on this to be sure. We don't think individuals' contributions would be considered commercial, but we're not sure it's an answerable question. As with most legal questions, it could depend on a particular jurisdiction, or the law being applied in the particular jurisdiction, or how a particular court battle resolves a particular case.

Thank you!
Forgive me piggybacking on this thread.

If I wrote an original 500 word essay as a biography for a profile, and gave a copy to my kids...and they published it somewhere publicly...and someone bound it up in a book and sold it, would it be in violation of copyright laws due to a verbatim text match and lack of established publication precedent before appearing on Wikitree?

A long way of saying can I accidently give away my content rights to wikitree and be in violation of my own work?
Chris, this seems worthy of discussion, but would you please post a new G2G question?
Done. TYVM
So I've just seen.  Thanks!  (Before I posted, apparently.)

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