GenealogyBank Terms of Use January 2016

Hat tip to Sheri Fenley for reminding me that there are restrictions to using images and content of GenealogyBank, and for providing the links to two other bloggers (Judy G. Russell's 2013 "GenealogyBank permissions clarified" and Heather Wilkinson Rojo's 2015 "I'm removing a blog post image...because it was the right thing to do!") who have already discussed this.

Heaven forbid rules apply to me!  (Is this where one starts to think they are above the law?)  So I contacted GenealogyBank via their Terms of Use page, hoping to hear I was the exception and could continue doing what I was doing.

But of course the rules do apply to me as they do everyone else (I obtained permission to share the response):

Dear Christine,

Thank you for your inquiry. You are free to use articles and images found on GenealogyBank for your own personal non-commercial use. When it comes to posting an "image" on the web or other social media sites that [is] prohibited without proper permission. 

Quoting or paraphrasing articles found on GenealogyBank.com is permitted. However, due to contractual agreements with our publishers, posting or publishing digitized images, articles or text found on GenealogyBank is prohibited without proper permission (See instructions for gaining permission below). This includes posting images found on GenealogyBank, to other web or social media sites.

Articles or content found on GenealogyBank published after 1923: 

To gain permission to use articles published after 1923 you must contact the publisher directly. Most newspaper publishers list their contact information and instructions on how to gain such permission on their website. 

Articles or content found on GenealogyBank published prior to 1923:

Articles published prior to 1923 that are found within GenealogyBank are to be used for personal use only and not to be used for public or commercial use. This may include but not limited to re-posting articles on the Internet or in a published book or magazine.

We encourage customers to instead create their own synopsis of the article(s) and add links to the actual images using an URL shorten service such as bit.ly. Please see the suggested format for citing an article found on GenealogyBank. [emphasis mine--I think I'll do both of these things going forward, I hadn't even thought of the tiny URL route, although unfortunately you have to be a GenealogyBank subscriber to see the linked content]

Suggested format: Betty Greer death notice, Rutland Herald [Rutland, VT] 2 February 1985. Newspaper. Online at GenealogyBank.com viewed 2 August 2012

Permission to use articles for commercial purposed included in a published book or magazine:

Digital images and text that you plan to use in a published book or for anything other than personal use can be licensed for a fee. Inquiries of this nature should be forwarded to the following email address: readexpermissions@readex.com 

Please include:

- Newspaper title

- Publishing date

- Article title

- URL to article

- Reason for use 

Abiding by our publisher agreements helps ensure that individuals and genealogists can continue to enjoy personal access to GenealogyBank content at such a reasonable cost. 

DISCLAIMER:  The terms of use discussed above are subject to change.


Soooooo.  I am going to get some practice with using shortened URLs and synopses/summaries, apparently lol.  Both on this blog and on Ancestry.  That's a lot of stuff, actually.

But that is okay.  It will force me to re-examine my material, which is recommended periodically anyway, so it's a win!  Maybe by reviewing my images taken from GenealogyBank I can break down some more brick walls.





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