Copyright my foot!

[Ian Mursell]

I agree with Simon on this.  I hope this topic will run on for a while as
it's one that affects many of us directly or indirectly fairly constantly.
ADEVA are not charging us anything for reproducing scans from their superb
facsimiles on our educational website, and they don't mind us doing our own
scans - but they're not a library, and I suspect the Bodleian in Oxford will
be stricter about permission to reproduce from facsimiles of the Mendoza,
even though they're not the publishers of the facsimiles.  If there's
sufficient interest I don't mind approaching the Bodleian to get an
'official' answer from them on specifically this topic.  By the by, my
partner and I met the keeper of ancient manuscripts at the Bodleian, Dr.
Bruce Barker-Benfield, a year ago and he gave us permission to request that
a photograph be taken (for the first time ever!) of the spine of the binding
case that contains the original Codex Laud (where you can - just - make out
the famous handwritten caption 'Liber Hieroglyphicorum Aegyptorum MS').  We
paid a standard photo request fee (something like £20 if I remember right)
and received the photo a few weeks later.  One of these days I mean to ask
permission from the Bodleian to upload the photo to our site, in a little
section on codices.

By coincidence, I'm in touch right now with a professional picture
researcher in Texas, Holly Marsh, who asked us to supply scans of assorted
images for an educational US textbook on the Aztecs, which we've done.
Several images are from codex facsimiles in our collection and I've asked
Holly to write a paragraph for this group summarizing the main points about
permissions/copyright for images taken from facsimiles.  From the exchange
we've had I understand that publishers expect to 'share' costs for this sort
of thing  between reproduction fees to the creator of the facsimile (e.g.
ADEVA) and service fees to a lab or whoever actually makes the scans; but I
don't think they expect to pay fees to the library 'owner' of the original
itself.  I think it would be good to consult a company like ADEVA in Graz
(Austria) on the subject to hear what their policy is.  I'll post Holly's
answer as soon as I get it.

Incidentally, she has asked me to post the following query to this forum in
case anyone can help with suggestions.  Thanks on her behalf to anyone who
can help her out.


*** So here's another question/favor to ask you: could you post a query to
the list asking for *immediate* (we're talking today I hope) help in
locating an easy-to-obtain low (and eventually high) res image of these:

1) illustration showing Aztec numbering system
2) illustration of Aztec days in the form of glyphs/pictograms
3) illustration of toponyms, combinations of glyphs or pictograms that form
place names such as towns ***


Regards to all,

Ian

Ian Mursell
Director
Mexicolore
28 Warriner Gardens
London SW11 4EB, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7622 9577
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7498 3643
www.mexicolore.co.uk
Ian.Mursell at btinternet.com
info at mexicolore.co.uk

1980-2005: 25 years of bringing Mexico and the Aztecs to life in schools and
museums throughout England.  Team visits, online teaching resources and
services, live interactive videoconferencing sessions, and much more - all
from Mexicolore, the 'highly successful teaching team' (British Museum
Education Service)