Does an ‘open’ scan of a shakespeare folio exist?
We’d really like to have some nice images of a shakespeare first folio (if possible from Hamlet) for use in the Open Shakespeare project. However all the scanned copies we’ve managed to find seem to be under full ‘all rights reserved’ copyright.
For example there’s an online version from the Schoenberg Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image at the University of Pennsylvania. But checking the printable version one finds the following:
©2003 Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image
University of Pennsylvania Library.
And this isn’t exceptional. There’s a list of available online folios on:
http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/overview/book.html
All of the copies listed are closed (copyrighted with no open license) — with most not allowing for any types of use without permission (the only exception being the State Library of New South Wales which allows for “educational, non-profit, purposes”).
It’s a rather unfortunate situation and it would be great to know if there is a scan of a shakespeare first folio out there which truly is open.
2 comments October 15th, 2006