Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#1

Post by wooboo » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 12:42 AM UTC

Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives
buzzfeednews.com

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#2

Post by dmitrygr » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 1:04 AM UTC

Government agencies screwing over those who are likely to take it and not cause trouble? Gasp! The surprise!

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#3

Post by zzleeper » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 1:15 AM UTC

Never heard of reclaim the records until now. What they are doing is amazing!

I was even moved to donate, even though I have no US ancestry ("Donation Confirmation Thank you for supporting Reclaim The Records!")

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#4

Post by NoblePublius » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 1:17 AM UTC

I’m willing to wager Ancestry does digitization better, faster and cheaper than any non profit would.

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#5

Post by jerrysievert » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 1:21 AM UTC

NoblePublius wrote: post #4

I’m willing to wager Ancestry does digitization better, faster and cheaper than any non profit would.

or that ancestry has a low-friction data ingestion pipeline that is many less steps than a standard data request.

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#6

Post by nyolfen » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 1:24 AM UTC

NoblePublius wrote: post #4

I’m willing to wager Ancestry does digitization better, faster and cheaper than any non profit would.

cheaper for whom? their basic subscription is $200/y

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#7

Post by cwyers » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 1:45 AM UTC

If you read the article, Reclaim The Records filed a FOIL (NY state version of FOIA) request for the records, which were stored on microfilm. The state quoted $150k for the request -- you still need to pay to have copies made. The group thought the state's quote was too large. Then Ancestry.com comes in, pays for the microfilm to be digitized, and the state tells the group "nevermind, we can do it for free now."

And this is the evidence that bad things are going on, somehow. The records group got the copies faster than if Ancestry.com hadn't gotten involved, and didn't have to pay for the.

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#8

Post by andrewem » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 1:47 AM UTC

zzleeper wrote: post #3

Never heard of reclaim the records until now. What they are doing is amazing! I was even moved to donate, even though I have no US ancestry ("Donation Confirmation Thank you for supporting Reclaim The Records!")

Reclaim the Records has done amazing work. HN user Asparagirl is the founder and runs it (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Asparagirl).

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#9

Post by andrewem » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 2:02 AM UTC

NoblePublius wrote: post #4

I’m willing to wager Ancestry does digitization better, faster and cheaper than any non profit would.

The counterexample to your claim is FamilySearch.org, which worked with Reclaim the Records on digitizing a set of records. (It's a nonprofit run by the LDS church, which is a behemoth in genealogy records.)

Re: Lawsuit claims Ancestry.com gets preferential access to New York public archives

#10

Post by altitudinous » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 2:12 AM UTC

"suspects".

I did not read the article because of this.

The internet slanders many based on only suspicion.

I suspect that we are not alone in the universe. I suspect that Elvis might still be alive. But I have no proof.

Get some proof.

I'm not going to write some article stating Elvis is still alive and pass it off as fact.