"Tickettyboo" wrote in message news:apsgp8F5k6kU1@mid.individual.net... On 2013-03-04 11:22:22 +0000, Ian Goddard said: > Tickettyboo wrote: >> I have received a copy of a document from a regional archives >> office. It >> was a parochial survey done in 1835 by the local vicar, as >> requested by >> the church authorities. >> >> I wanted the copy for my own research and intend to transcribe it >> and >> let the archives have a copy. I would happily publish the >> transcription, >> so that others can have access to the info, but have been told I >> can't >> 'because of copyright and also because it takes income away from >> the >> archives'. > > Some background here: > http://www.archives.org.uk/publications/copyright-issues-for-archivists.html Thank you - and to the others who have replied. My thinking is that copyright is a minefield, I doubt if I will ever fully understand all the nuances of it and can see why archives perhaps err on the side of caution. I don't like the resulting effect on my hobby, but sometimes life is unfair. Got to live with it I suppose and keep on finding ways to get info without treading on the mines :-) */*/*/ Copyright on the original work is until 70 years after the author's death. If you extract information from the text, putting it into your own words, you create an original work on which you hold the copyright as it's your work. If you make a word for word transcription of a written work, that's the same (apart from the work involved) as photocopying or scanning it. It's the author's words, not yours and, within the time frame, still the author's copyright. Even if it's something as simple as a picture or table, if you don't change it, it still belongs to the author or the estate as their original work. Also, if the archive have made images of the original work to provide you with a copy, they can claim that they own the copyright on those images - if you could get to the original book and make your own images, it would be different. That's how people can claim copyright on pictures of things like the Mona Lisa. Unless you have a brain like a corkscrew, it's best not to think about it. Lesley Robertson