Thank you again, Andrew. I think your latest letter clears up the remaining doubt.

I think most of us here would agree that we would have an excellent [[lex ferenda]] case for using a picture of this priceless mediæval manuscript. According to Andrew's sources, on the other hand, it seems that the [[lex lata]] in Britain is very much against our interests.

Now, when this picture was submitted into Wikipedia no-one bothered to ask for permission, assuming on the basis of U.S. law that the use was legal anyhow. It is possible that such permission could be obtained. Would that be useful or would we rather forego having the image at all? (It could possibly be replaced by a scan from an old out of copyright mediocre quality black-and white photo.)

Or should we continue to blithely ignore the law outside of the U.S. amidst heartfelt proclamations of "free" meaning "free for anyone in the world"?

Regards, Haukur