Genealogical prostitution
Ξ December 11th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Musings |
Dick Eastman, in a recent blog entry, defended the right of companies to charge for genealogical information.
I disagree with him on many levels.
Some companies, like Ancestry.com, have gone to private websites and gathered information, and then had the nerve to put the collected information into a database and charge for access to that database. A public outcry stopped the action, but once information has been gathered, you can bet Ancestry.com kept that information, and probably diffused the database’s information into other existing databases, and are profiting from the information they claimed they distanced themselves from. Know this: At the core of these big genealogy companies are salesmen and public relations people. The only thing they are interested in is making money — from our families.
I think it safe to assume that Ancestry.com is not the only company that has stolen information — they were just caught with their hand “in the till.” How Eastman can continue to defend such companies, and their greedy profit motives is reprehensible; but then again, he is likely funded by these companies, so why bite the many hands that feed you? Who do you think pays for his genealogy cruises? How about a financial disclosure? What part of your funding comes from these big companies? And how can you continue to hawk Ancestry.com’s products, knowing their recent practices?
For the unfortunate people from whom the information was stolen, there is no recourse, no recompense, no accountability, no individual apology. Information, once lost, cannot be called back. And only Ancestry.com knows from whom they stole information, and Ancestry.com isn’t likely to disclose that information, nor apologize to those from whom they burglarized family information. The company will continue to profit from the stolen information, in one form or another.
If states and federal governments want to serve the people, they should give the same access to records that they give for-profit companies. There are only a handful of places your can go on the Internet to find free information. A lot of websites have “junk” teasers, that make you think you’ll find some information; but they all lead to a genealogy, for-profit company. And many of these so-called helpful sites are actually owned by genealogy companies, and only serve as pointers to the genealogy companies.
What I suggest is that “the people” initiate a groundswell of information-sharing themselves, and not leave it to commercial companies to have exclusive ownership of the information so that, to get to it, people will have to pay whatever fee the companies wish to get to it. There is nothing wrong with, for example, genealogy societies charging a modest fee for their work; or, perhaps, some sort of information-sharing arrangement, in which individuals could provide some of their family history information in exchange for geting some from one of these societies.
What is needed is a grassroots movement, a genealogy revolution, in which individuals share with local, local with state, and state with state. There are hundreds of ways people could wrest the information from the exclusive domain of big genealogy companies; but people will have to become their own leaders in the revolution. They should also demand that government be held accountable for the information in its care, and that government freely provide that information in its archives to everyone, and cease to serve as the genealogy companies’ prostitutes.
There is a difference, Mr. Eastman, between “free” and “thievery.” Maybe you should distance yourself from that criminal element. But then, where’s the profit in that?
As for us “commoners” — it’s time for us to return our ancestors to our families. Are you up to it?
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