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Partial image of what I suspect is a public record:enter image description here

Is "reproduction prohibited" legally enforceable?  That would make thousands of genealogists in violation, as well as sites like FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com.

I'm not asking about the privacy aspect—I realize most jurisdictions have privacy protections on such documents.  But it seems to me that anyone obtaining such a document legally has the right to provide it to others for the information it contains.  And I realize that if it is presented with the purpose of obtaining something that the provider of something doesn't have to accept it.  Merely asking about the general prohibition.

Related: Find out if "Further reproduction prohibited without permission" document is original but that concerns items actually copyrighted.

WGroleau
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This depends on the law of the particular state, but such a law applicable to vital records does exist. It is against the law in Washington under RCW 70.58A.060 to

prepare or issue any vital record that purports to be an original, certification of, or copy of a vital record except as authorized in this chapter.

The chapter does not sanction making a photocopy. However, the state registrar can permit copying, and as a matter of course does so for records of a certain age which is how Family Search gets access to old birth certificates (it does also include user uploading illegal copies). The websites don't make copies, as far as I know, they distribute already-copied records which may have been created legally or illegally. I do not know if anyone has been prosecuted for good-faith copying of a record – the law is there to give legal leverage against identity fraud.

user6726
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