Thank you to all those who came to the Open Data Conference on Saturday 30th January and especially to John Sheridan (Digital Director, the National Archives), Simon Tanner (Pro Vice Dean Research Impact & Innovation, King's College London) and our own Trustee Richard Light, for giving such enjoyable and illuminating talks.

Welcome slides with notes and the new Free UK Genealogy Open Data video can be seen here. A (poor quality) video of this section can be viewed here.

John Sheridan's talk can be seen here (we apologize for the poor quality of the recording). Simon's slides can be seen here and Richard slides can be viewed here.

The formal presentations were followed by a presentation of a new Free UK Genealogy video explaining why we believe Open Data is so crucial to the future of the organisation and projects, and hence the need for a new transcribers agreement.

Whilst the 'in person' attendees were able to join in the lively debate, online attendees became increasingly frustrated with streaming issues that were caused by the WiFi provision at the Linnean Society, not within our control unfortunately.

We understand how disappointing this must have been and are now working hard on editing the conference video, which will be published with a transcript as soon as we can.

Thank you for your patience if you tried to join us via one of these methods, and as one of the Trustees commented we need to ensure that technical issues do not undermine the messages of the day. It is important to ensure that all transcribers get an opportunity to hear the case for Open Data and get easy access to the proposed transcriber agreement and consultation process.

• The proposed Transcriber Agreement Consultation can be found here.
• Please use the consultation process to let us know your views on the proposed transcriber agreement and
• please check FAQs if you have any questions. We will be adding the questions raised at the conference to this page shortly. If you still have questions please email us at info@freeukgen.org.uk

Press coverage:
Digital adventurers - Family Tree Editor Helen Tovey gets to grips with 'Open Data' and what it means for family history http://family-tree.co.uk/2016/02/digital-adventurers/

A new copyright notice from the IPO clarifies status of photographs of original documents

The statement, issued at the end of November says "Simply creating a copy of an image won't result in a new copyright in the new item."

So are digitised copies of older images protected by copyright?

This is the question that is of particular importance to Free UK Genealogy. Here's what the IPO has to say:

Simply creating a copy of an image won't result in a new copyright in the new item. However, there is a degree of uncertainty regarding whether copyright can exist in digitised copies of older images for which copyright has expired. Some people argue that a new copyright may arise in such copies if specialist skills have been used to optimise detail, and/or the original image has been touched up to remove blemishes, stains or creases.

However, according to the Court of Justice of the European Union which has effect in UK law, copyright can only subsist in subject matter that is original in the sense that it is the author's own 'intellectual creation'.

Given this criteria, it seems unlikely that what is merely a retouched, digitised image of an older work can be considered as 'original'. This is because there will generally be minimal scope for a creator to exercise free and creative choices if their aim is simply to make a faithful reproduction of an existing work.

However, this doesn't mean that every photograph of old records is free of copyright;

• the original record may be in copyright or,
• the photographer may have been only allowed to photograph it or,
• you may have only been allowed to view it after entering into a contract with the owner or custodian of the physical records.

Nevertheless, this statement is a very welcome development which will make access to historic records much easier.

Free UK Genealogy is becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation

We will shortly be opening a new organisation: Free UK Genealogy CIO.

CIO is the abbreviation for Charitable Incorporated Organisation (its a standard financial abbreviation, as Ltd. and PLC are). The CIO will have the same objectives and Trustees as the existing Free UK Genealogy. Like the existing organisation, the new organisation will be a registered charity.

Once the new CIO is set up, new contracts will be made with it, rather than with the existing charity. This will include the Transcribers Agreement. The existing contracts will be moved to it when time allows, the assets transferred and the old charity will be wound up after that. Unfortunately it is not legally possible to simply change the existing charity and its contracts to become a CIO.

We are doing this for two reasons: governing an unincorporated charity presents a risk to Trustees because they, personally, are financially liable rather than the charity. It is normal for a charity to change from being unincorporated to incorporated when it starts to employ staff.

The unincorporated status of the current charity also presents a difficult in forming a trading company because only an individual or an incorporated body can hold shares. All the shares in the trading company will be held by the CIO - and all profits will be given to the CIO. We need a separate trading company because while a charity allowed to trade, this is restricted to a small proportion of its income, and we earn most of our income from banner advertising.

You can read more about the kinds of charities on the Charity Commission's pages.

Welcome to Billy Davis, a new trustee

We are delighted to welcome Billy as a new trustee of Free UK Genealogy.

Billy brings with him significant experience in public affairs - having worked both for consultancies as well as "in house" at several NGOs. He has a strong personal interest in genealogy and is currently helping trace his own family tree. He is particularly keen to help us to raise our profile and communicate our message to a wider audience.

We have been seeking to increase the number of Trustees in order to develop the range of skills and experience that manage the organisation, and continue to do so.

Pat Reynolds

Executive Director, Free UK Genealogy