selling genealogical info on the internet

[fairkatrina]

hypothetically speaking, if I had access to transcripts of marriage applications for 50 parishes between the years 1700-1850, could I legally sell this information on the internet (from a UK based site)? I know copyright doesn't cover facts, which is what this information would be, but in order to reproduce it would I have to own an original source of this data (.e.g. a book published in 1875 with the applications listed) or could I reproduce it from more modern sources (e.g. a cd holding a scanned copy of the book)?

I don't have any access to this info, but in my travels through numerous genealogical websites it strikes me that this sort of thing happens very regularly, and I'm just wondering if it's legitimate?

[dotty.]

'Transcripts' are copies of original registers, they are owned by the personw ho transcibes them, of you were to sit in a CRO for a few days and copied out a parish regsiter and then indexed it and typed all the data up it becomes your transcript. You can market and sell it in any format you like, but how pleased would you be i someone then bought your book and tried to then make money out of your transcription ?

[Segilla]

Why not do what we used to years ago, which was to transcribe and give the information away as a pay-back for other toilers in the past whose work we use. Alas, family history is now big, big business.