[WikiEN-l] African maps

[geni]

On 1/11/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The format with which they appear on the net makes them hard/very hard
> > to copy. Contacting may be only option
>
> 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.

I doubt the BBC has even considered it.

>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 case under US law we generaly cite is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_Ltd._v._Corel_Corporation

scanned images have not been found to be copyrightable underUS law.

> It's probably best to contact them directly.

Since getting them off the website would involve rather a lot of work
yes. However it would probably be better if someone in the US did it.
-- 
geni