I just happened to read Randy and the Ancestry Insider's posts on the lawsuit filed by TGN (the company that owns Ancestry.com) against the maker of the Legacy Family Tree. Ancestry claims that Legacy has infringed upon the copyright of Ancestry's Family Tree Maker. I realize that copyright infringements are very serious, but from looking at the different boxes for the software, it appears to my layman's judgement that the lawsuit is petty. (I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not an expert. This is just my opinion.)
To me, the legacy box does not share very much in common with Ancestry's Family Tree Maker boxes. The Family Tree Maker boxes have a branch with leaves of a certain color, and each color is different for three editions of the Family Tree Maker. The Legacy box, however, only has a orange maple leaf on the box. (That is, if you look at Ancestry Insider's picture of the box.) If you look at the picture in Randy's post, however, the box does not look a bit like the boxes for Ancestry's software. Of course, that is just one of the aspects mentioned on the Ancestry Insider's post that I thought I would mention.
From a public relations standpoint, I think this lawsuit was a mistake for Ancestry. This lawsuit only makes Ancestry appear more of a money-grubbing company. I think this lawsuit will only drop Ancestry's approval rates drop even more among its dissatisfied customers. Of course, that is just my opinion.
So, what do you think? As always, you can leave a comment.
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Indiana Genealogical Society blog
17 years ago
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