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 [log in to unmask] A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>