[Geowanking] GB Historic Counties polygons

[stephen white]

On 08/01/2008, at 3:44 AM, Ian Turton wrote:
> I know that for a while the British Library (who were partners) who
> scanned their maps tried to claim the copyright on the scans of the
> maps but we refused to believe that scanning a map was sufficient to
> give you a copyright. It's been a while but I could probably drag up
> the references to the original case law - it was something to do with
> pictures of works of art some museum was arguing they owned copyright

I remember the case... and they're right. They do own copyright of  
the digitisation or scanned information, even though they don't own  
copyright on the originals or the images. That means you're free to  
photograph or digitise your own copies, but you can't take what  
they've done for your own use.

I'm trying to remember the details. Something about the Catholic  
Church and restoring a Da Vinci work. The restoration was funded by  
the church releasing photos of the work in progress, while not  
allowing public access to the work in progress (so the photos were  
the only images available).

--
   steve at adam.com.au