>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