On 1/11/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@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.