Conscious of the fact that
sharing information or data with others, whether through speech,
documents or electronic media, is essential to family history research
and that it needs continuing support and encouragement, responsible
family historians consistently—
- respect the restrictions on sharing
information that arise from the rights of another as an author,
originator or compiler; as a living private person; or as a party to
a mutual agreement.
- observe meticulously the legal rights of
copyright owners, copying or distributing any part of their works
only with their permission, or to the limited extent specifically
allowed under the law's "fair use" exceptions.
- identify the sources for all ideas,
information and data from others, and the form in which they were
received, recognizing that the unattributed use of another's
intellectual work is plagiarism.
- respect the authorship rights of senders of
letters, electronic mail and data files, forwarding or disseminating
them further only with the sender's permission.
- inform people who provide information about
their families as to the ways it may be used, observing any
conditions they impose and respecting any reservations they may
express regarding the use of particular items.
- require some evidence of consent before
assuming that living people are agreeable to further sharing of
information about themselves.
- convey personal identifying information
about living people—like age, home address, occupation or
activities—only in ways that those concerned have expressly agreed
to.
- recognize that legal rights of privacy may
limit the extent to which information from publicly available
sources may be further used, disseminated or published.
- communicate no information to others that is
known to be false, or without making reasonable efforts to determine
its truth, particularly information that may be derogatory.
- are sensitive to the hurt that revelations
of criminal, immoral, bizarre or irresponsible behavior may bring to
family members.
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