>Hello
>         I have a question regarding the private sale of public records. I
>think
>that this issue has been discussed in the past on the list. So I
>apologize if I am repeating a previous question.
>         Over the past several
>months I have noticed a few public records
>being sold on EBAY. These included an item that was purported to be the
>official town records of a New York State town dating to the 1830s; in
>addition, recently I have seen mid-nineteenth-century court records and
>an election "register" for sale.
>         My question is, what is the legal status of these sales? Do the
>relevant governments, for example, the town in the case of the  town
>records, have
>any legal claim on these documents? Or are they simply private property?
>
>
>Thanks
>Ian McGiver


        Ian
        EBAY poses an interesting problem -- and in some cases,
opportunity.  The issue of public records is interesting; I wrote
about this in my editorial for History News, Fall, 2001, and about
the issue of replevin.

        carol