Copyright & Reuse
Copyright & Reuse
Colonial Office records — Crown Copyright
The Colonial Office (CO) records catalogued here are subject to Crown Copyright. However, UK Crown Copyright on public records is administered by the UK National Archives under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL), which permits free reuse worldwide.
What you can do (transcriptions & text)
Under the OGL, you may:
- Copy, publish, distribute, and transmit the information
- Adapt the information (e.g., translate, create derived works)
- Use it commercially or non-commercially
- Use it for any purpose, including academic research, journalism, or education
The only requirement is attribution:
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Digitized images — different rules
If you want to reproduce scans or photographs of documents held at the UK National Archives (i.e., images created by TNA’s digitization programme), those are treated as “Tradable Information” and require a separate licensing agreement with TNA, including reproduction fees.
The practical distinction:
- Text transcriptions of CO records → free to use under OGL
- TNA’s own digital images/scans → requires TNA licence
Our digitization approach
NBHRC creates its own digital surrogates by photographing or scanning original documents at Kew. Those copies are NBHRC’s own work. This gives NBHRC full rights to host and distribute the resulting digital archive without requiring a TNA image licence.
Third-party materials
Some records in the CO series contain third-party materials (maps by private surveyors, company prospectuses, newspaper cuttings, etc.). Where third-party copyright exists, it must be cleared separately. NBHRC flags known third-party materials where possible.