The original post I was replying to mentioned copyrighted material being put into the Mormon genealogical database. If a copyrighted book says that John Doe was born on May 1, 1800, is it a violation of copyright to put that historical fact into a genealogical database?
No. Copyright protects original expressions of ideas or facts. It does not protect ideas or facts themselves.
Let's say I wrote: "John Doe was born to a miserly mother and a flatulent father -- not the best of circumstances, it seemed. But his arrival on May 1, 1800, presaged the coming of a new day in politics. Little did the world know that this bald-headed baby boy would eventually transform the social landscape forever. It was as if God had captured lightning in a bottle of moonshine, giving John Doe to us all, though it would take years for the dunderheaded among us to realize that's what it all meant."
THAT, I could copyright. But I have no claim on the FACT that John Doe was born on such-and-such date, and nor does anyone else.