What to Remember About WeRemember–By Ancestry.com

WeRemember.com  is a new “memory sharing” website sponsored by Ancestry.com.

Users can create “memorial pages” for individuals and the creator can control the page and submissions to the page by others. At least that’s how the website describes it. I’m not certain if different users can submit pages for the same person or if the memorials will be searchable on the site itself (read the Frequently Asked Questions Page for more details)–however they may eventually be searchable elsewhere based upon the user agreement.

From the user agreement:

By submitting User Provided Content on any of the Websites, you grant Ancestry and its Group Companies a perpetual, transferable, sublicenseable, worldwide, royalty-free, license to host, store, copy, publish, distribute, provide access to create derivative works of, and otherwise use User Provided Content submitted by you to the Websites, to the extent and in the form or context we deem appropriate on or through any media or medium and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed or discovered[emphasis added]. You hereby release Ancestry and its Group Companies from any and all claims, liens, demands, actions or suits in connection with the User Provided Content you submit, including, without limitation, any and all liability for any use or nonuse of your User Provided Content, claims for defamation, invasion of privacy, right of publicity, emotional distress or economic loss. This license continues even if you stop using the Websites or the Services. Ancestry may scan, image and/or create an index from the User Provided Content you submit[emphasis added]. In this situation, you grant Ancestry a license to the User Provided Content[emphasis added] as described above and Ancestry will own the digital version of documents created by Ancestry as well as any indexed information that Ancestry creates. Except for the rights granted in this Agreement, Ancestry acquires no title or ownership rights in or to any User Provided Content you submit and nothing in this Agreement conveys any ownership rights in such User Provided Content on the Websites. The licenses granted continue for the maximum time permitted by applicable law, even if you stop using the Websites or the Services[emphasis added].

This is the Ancestry.com User Agreement. It’s not new news and has been in effect since 17 March 2015. We’re not scooping anything here and not announcing something that’s not been available for some time. No matter what someone may tell you, the User Agreement is not news. It may be new for people who have not read it. You can read it at https://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/termsandconditions.

There it is. Read it. That’s what you are agreeing to when you acknowledge the “user agreement.” It’s your decision to make for yourself–not mine to make for you. I want users to be informed. Ancestry.com may (among other things) “scan and image the User Provided Content.” Ancestry.com will own the digital version of documents Ancestry.com creates. They are not claiming to own your material.

So…don’t be irritated if material you created ends up on another Ancestry.com owned site even if you stop using www.weremember.com and if Ancestry.com stops supporting it. You are granting these things to Ancestry.com, not WeRemember.

There’s a reason for that.

 

 

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