What is the copyright situation for the outcome of retro digitization?

There is much work going on in retro digitization, much of it content which is old enaugh not to be subject to copyright any more. The outcome is published to the internet by libraries as well as by Google Books, for example. But what is the copyright situation for the outcome of retro digitization? Is it public domain by default, too, or isn’t it? If not, is the driver of retro digitization projects allowed to explicitly publish the retro digitizations under an open license, or isn’t it?

Paramaeleon

• digitize
• legal
• unclear-location
• copyright

Comments

• Christian Pietsch: We are not a community of lawyers, so this is the wrong place to ask such a question. Besides -- you did not mention which location or region your question applies to.
• Ben Fino-Radin: The question is off-topic.
• Andy Jackson: Agree this question covers such a broad range of issues that it's unanswerable. For an indication of the complexities involved, I'll refer you to this blog post from the Bodleian, which is only applicable under current UK law.