Who holds copyright on Parish Registers?

[Keitht]

The situatin I described originallly came to my attention when I was researching the sale of a large amount of land in the early 1900s on behalf of a company now situated on part of it. The land was sold at auction in various lots and a catalogue and map were distributed. The company held an original copy but so did the local authority archive and the British Library, both of which claimed copyright. The auctioneers were no longer in business and research showed that the family on whose behalf the land was being sold had since died out. I checked the copy in the hands of the local authority and found it identical to that to which I already had access. Since the purpose of the whole exercise was to produce a book on the company's history I discussed my intention with the LA archivists, who seemed adamant that their "copyright" would prevent me from including either the catalogue entry or a copy of the map. I offered to provide them with a copy of the finished work and suggested that if they were convinced of their case they should then institute legal action against me. This was eight years ago and I'm still waiting.

[fastfusion]

You discribe in the reply that the 'interested parties' were threatening legal action against you on grounds of copyright. 
1. do you have an original in your ownership... if so its yours to do whatever with.  however
2. if you have taken from the domain of libraries in Britain , its not yours even though some legal argument could go in your favour given it being of 1900 or you found permission by the cartographer...  but you may wish to bi-pass the action by simply filling out a form that asks for permission from the British Library or to whom it belongs.... there is a site link available with a downloadable form for the express purpose of publishing.......      its a must do if anyone doing family history books .....
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/use-of-tna-materials.pdf
3. you can threaten them back now for loss of income and counter their ability to frustrate your lawful right to income.,

[Freedom of thought]

Premise crossed my mind, off the top of my head- mentioning the government, but the church did the work, hmm…
It’s not like normal copyright surely and the church should be substantially rewarded.
Do the descendants have rights hmm…