Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! And The Guest Author Is . . .

FRIDAY FROM THE COLLECTORS - MAY 2

May 2nd brings us a discussion of copyright with the multi-talented Craig Manson. Craig is a member of the California Bar, a Law & Public Policy Professor, and the brains behind the Historical Appellate Review Project (HARP). Craig will discuss the issue of copyright specific to old family photographs and those orphan photographs we can't walk out of an antique store without or leave on eBay. Craig has become the geneaBloggers' "legal guru," the go to guy for our collective legal questions.

Last year saw the inauguration of HARP, run by Craig from his law office in Sacramento, California. Using state-of-the-art genealogical and legal research procedures, HARP will investigate a family's alleged black sheep and let that family know if their ancestor's name might be cleared! What could be a more worthwhile undertaking?

Well, that just might be the exceptionally well written family history blog, geneablogie.net, that Craig authors. He is passionate about American history and his ancestors and it shows.

Craig wrote:

I've observed that history is personal. Furthermore, history is too important to be left to historians. And finally, history is made by each of us every day in the things we do and indeed, the things we fail to do. We are shaped by history, but we are not bound by it.

It is that straight forward, tell it like it is, Craig Manson we have come to admire and rely on! It is that Craig Manson I am proud to have as the Guest Author for Friday From The Collectors on May 2. I'm really looking forward to Craig's insights on the issue of copyright for the family historian and the photographic collector.

Note: Craig researched and wrote the exceptional multi-part series titled "Did Ancestry Violate The Copyright Law" that helped us all better understand an area of the law often incomprehensible to the lay person, copyright.

(Craig's interview with Dear Myrtle on HARP can be found here.)