Threats from shhhhhhh you know who

[Mobo]

 

I'm with you Tabitha - Hear ! Hear !

 

[RJ_Paton]

Sorry Mobo and tabitha I disagree.

where would we be if these companies didn't put their money up front and produce the articles we need to carry out our research.
Certainly like many others my funds are limited and I buy only what I believe I will use on a regular basis but from what I've seen on ebay these sets are being split up and sold at a profit not from any form of  goodwill or altruism.

[Mobo]

 

Oh !  diddums for the poor profit making companies who are all making millions out of this new 'genealogy' lark - they must think it's their birthday !!

When I first started this hobby over 20 years ago, there were pratically no companies offering such things, it was all one's own personal 'slog' to libraries and churches in all conditions and weathers, and paying researchers to find information from inaccessible places.

But suddenly when the new trend in family research begins, guess what, suddenly there are companies offering all manner of information 'for sale'

I'm afraid my feelings towards big business are quite jaundiced to start with, and I resent having to deal with it to further what, after all, is just a hobby (albiet an addictive one). 

I have always believed that such information should be in the Public Domain and easily accessible from small fee-paying voluntary sites, not something which has to be purchased and doesn't even belong to you due to copyright bah - humbug !!

 

[Nicky]

HEAR HEAR MOBO

I AGREE 100% WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID.

NICKY

[RJ_Paton]

I too have slogged through years of research in churchyards and freezing libraries ..... yes much of the information should be in the public domain and in some forms it is ... just not as easily accessible as people today want it ....

We are not talking here about some huge conglomerate sending wave after wave of lawyers at some poor innocent sod who failed to dot a few i's or cross the t's in the right place.Nor are we talking about multi millionaires ripping off poor joe public .

How many small fee paying resources would exist if some one came along and started selling the work that their volunteers had gathered ..... very few.
(and yes I do know that S & N did not rely upon volunteers to create their products).

I do not support the route taken by this company as I stated earlier, I personally believe that it is self defeating but that is their choice.
They created a product and now others are trying to rip them off as I also said  those selling the split sets on ebay would appear to be trying to make a profit from this rather than from any form of altruism.

[Mobo]

 

"How many small fee paying resources would exist if some one came along and started selling the work that their volunteers had gathered ..."

Falkyrn, that's my whole point ! If the information were available through small-fee paying resources, what would be the point of anyone trying to sell it ??  No profit = no interest.

[forester]

Am I missing the point or has a certain company missed a marketing oppurtunity?

I am not wiiling nor able to pay £50 for 40 odd CDs when probably 40 of them are going to gather dust. With each census covered and my interest in several counties, that is a few hundred pounds and a mountain of redundant CDs.

 I would however be prepared to pay say £10 for 4 of them covering a particular area where I knew I had a concentration of ancestors. If over time I found they had spread out a bit, I would probably be prepared to do the same again. I would be happy and I would have thought that the company would have been happy to have sold 8 CDs at £2.50 each, rather than none at £50 a set.

Of course those who were splitting sets and selling them on e-bay were making a profit, but that was because there was a market for them. 

Phil

[Hackstaple]

The large expenditure and effort put in by S&N, and others, has helped to make family history a possible hobby for some, perhaps many, who would otherwise be frozen out. I will not go into details but I am not capable of the huge effort required to personally visit the PRO and County Record Offices. In addition I have an invalid wife and I am her main carer.
Mobo believes they can exist successfully because family history has become a big hobby that they can exploit. Perhaps family history has become a big hobby because there are these sources of information that hobbyists can exploit
I cannot view their wish to make profits as unreasonable.Anyone who has been in business should realise that profit is a prime motive - no profit, no business. People who cannot see that are unreasonably idealistic or have only known sheltered and non-comptetive employment.
Neither can I see anything wrong in the fact that they wish to protect their market and their copyrights. They would be foolish if they did not. Whether they can succeed in that is another matter altogether - it may be they have little possibility to stop people from disposing of their own property to the owner's best advantage - but that is another matter.
My experience with S&N is limited and entirely satisfactory - I have two of their major products.

[Nicky]

CAN I JUST ASK, WHY ARE THE CD'S FROM S&N NOT ALLOWED TO BE SOLD ON?
YOU ARE ENTITLED TO BUY A MUSIC CD AND THEN RESELL IT.
I AM VERY CURIOUS.
NICKY