I can understand Susanne's concern about costs for downloading from the
Domesday
book.    But understand that this was a massive project.   We have the
1992 facsimile
and transcription here and that cost us $6,000 at the time.   I can
understand the UK
National Archives desire to at least recoup some of the costs as well as
the automation costs for maintaining lines, etc. for connections and
downloading.

Second, under English copyright law, there is a Crown copyright in all
public records
(it is a monarchy after all).    If you read through the UK National
Archives site very
carefully, they discuss the Crown copyright to all public records
regardless of age.
That is their law, after all.    

I would note that the contents of the Domesday book, indexes, and
transcriptions
have been available for many years in book form as I've given
genealogical lectures
on the set and pointed researchers to the standard published data.

Dean


Dean DeBolt
University Librarian, Special Collections
John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
850-474-2213
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