Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts and (motivated) opinions, the issue is more clear to now (at least, I know why is it fuzzy, blurred and not clear at all). Reading the answer, I guess it was worth to ask the question ;-)
Aubrey
2010/10/27 John Vandenberg jayvdb@gmail.com
And the really short version is:
We believe new scans of old works do not gain a new copyright, and *we* (the public) have not signed contracts with organisations which put scans online.
However, in the UK there is a fear that the law will give new scans a new copyright, so we are more cautious.
-- John Vandenberg
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