New York Public Library Releases Over 20,000 Hi-Res Maps 25
Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes "Finally, you don't have to raise your voice over a group of whisperers in the New York Public Library to get a better view of its map collection. Actually, you don't even need to visit the place at all. Over 20,000 maps and cartographic works from the NYPL's Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division have been uploaded and made downloadable for the public.
'We believe these maps have no known U.S. copyright restrictions,' explains a blog post announcing the wholesale release of the library's map collection. 'It means you can have the maps, all of them if you want, for free, in high resolution. We've scanned them to enable their use in the broadest possible ways by the largest number of people.' The NYPL is distributing the maps under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, which means you can do whatever you want with the maps."
'We believe these maps have no known U.S. copyright restrictions,' explains a blog post announcing the wholesale release of the library's map collection. 'It means you can have the maps, all of them if you want, for free, in high resolution. We've scanned them to enable their use in the broadest possible ways by the largest number of people.' The NYPL is distributing the maps under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, which means you can do whatever you want with the maps."
Finally some GOOD NEWS regarding intellectual prop (Score:5, Insightful)
PUBLIC LIBRARIES are an institution that benefits society overall by enhancing its citizens. People sharing knowledge, ideas, or information is a responsibility of the human race . This will always serve humanity beyond all of the royalties of copyright law. Nobody can really claim exclusive ownership of ideas that are shared and built upon the souls that precede us. Frankly, lobbyists in Washington have accomplished less for most Americans than the New York Public Library has accomplished in this one principled act of public policy Carnegie and Rockefeller and other barons of industry may have started these institutions because they understood that a rich culture is as valuable a resource to society as all the oil and steel.