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I used to sigh every time I saw "British Library" headlines, as they usually found some stupid way to wrap everything in icky Microsoft technologies long after they became unnecessary encumbrances on web sites.

There's not enough detail in the article to see if they've grown out of that phase, but it would still suprise me if they actually made these bits of "cultural history" freely available in a straightforward way.

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In recent years, the BL have worked closely with Wikipedians to share media under free/ open licences, including over a million images on Flickr Commons, and releasing audio recordings of birds, to which they own the copyright. I've worked with them on both projects. They also employed a Wikipedian in Residence for a year, and generously hosted a Wikipedia conference and other Wikipedia events.

Surely there's no copyright in birdsong recordings (taken individually at least). There is no creative input from the recorder.

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