Can I obtain a copyright of a copy of an old document?

Recent news releases in the genealogical community highlight additionsto more huge online databases of historic images, including privatedocuments such as journals, wills, maps and other such items. Many ofthese images are put online by companies trying to charge a fee for someaspect of either searching or reproducing the documents. This raises amore than academic question, can anyone obtain copyright protection byvirtue of scanning an old documents and putting it into an onlinedatabase? The answer involves more than a simple yes or no.

Let's say I purchase or find a paper copy of an 1887 state map ofArizona Territory. Without going into a long analysis, it is pretty easyto ascertain that there is no copyright protection for a document thisold for the map's original publisher or cartographer. In other words, adocument that old is now considered to be in the public domain and notprotected by any present U.S. copyright law from any type of use orreproduction. So now the question becomes, is there anything I can do tothe map to obtain a copyright? The answer is maybe.

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Can I obtain a copyright of a copy of an old document?

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