For your information and hopefully future action:
look at the National Archives in the UK which has just put up an 
electronic version of the Domesday book but charges for downloading 
individual pages.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/?source=domesday_fd_1

For instance: I searched for 'Cambridge' as city, clicked on the first 
search result and got a typed-in synopsis of the page.  I would then 
have had to pay 3.50 pounds (about $6.50 or Euro 5.18) if I wanted to 
download the page. From images available elsewhere on their website, it 
appears as if the synopsis (free of charge) is not equivalent to its 
down-loadable image.

This is a regrettable development in my mind: to charge for making 
national documents available, and thereby claiming private property 
rights to documents that were not 'owned' by anyone but an amorphous 
public until recently. 
The Geneaological Society of Utah, a private organization, is trying to 
do the same: to get access to public registry records all over the world 
and have organizations and institutions sign agreements which allow the 
GSU to charge for value added records put online at some point in time 
in the future.


-- 
Susanne Belovari
Archivist for Reference and Collections 
DCA
Tufts University
35 Professors Row
Tisch Library Building
Medford, MA 02155
tel: 617-627-3631
fax: 617-627-4650
[log in to unmask]
http.//dca.tufts.edu/

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