On 1/11/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
I'm not sure what the legal issues would be with taking them straight off the net, anyway. It looks like the BBC means free as in beer, not speech. While the copyright on a 16th century map has almost certainly expired, the scanned version of it might be copyrighted (I'm no expert, but I'm sure someone here can tell me whether or not scanned images are copyrightable). The site doesn't seem to say what the copyright status is.
It's probably best to contact them directly.
Looks like these are in the clear.
"Northwestern does not claim any copyright to these images or the original maps."
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/mapsofafrica/contact...