quick (?) copyright question

[Dworin]

I'm looking to adapt some published maps of ancient Rome for my game purpose. I take the maps for heritage-hitory.com. However, the copyright conditions confuse me, so I'd like to clarify before I sink much time and effort in adapting the maps. I copy the relevant paragraph from https://www.heritage-history.com/ssl...ext_terms.html

Heritage History permits the use of maps and images from its Compact Libraries only for personal and educational use. They can be freely used by students or instructors in slide-shows, power-point presentations, projects, reports, or videos, as long as they are employed for personal or educational purposes and are not distributed or used for commercial purposes. Under certain conditions Heritage History will allow use of these images for commercial or public purposes, but only with prior written permission for each specific use, and sometimes after the payment of a small fee.

Does adapting a map for use on rpgx fall under 'personal use'? Since the terms mention 'public purposes', would it make a difference if I limit access to players only? Or am I better off looking for a different source altogether (not wishing to go through the hassle of written permission).

ETA: The next paragraph should also be referenced:

Heritage History frequently receives requests for use of our maps and images. Although we do not allow images to be copied and posted on other websites, we do allow Heritage History images to be sourced by other web pages. Attribution is appreciated, but as long as images are sourced directly from our website, no additional attribution is required. The images that we have made available on our website and compact libraries are relatively low resolution due to both space and performance considerations. They are adequate for internet use but are not suitable for professional reproduction. We do have high resolution (300 bpi), versions of most of our images, but they are only available on special request.

[Dworin]

While I can't really answer my original question, the point is rendered moot insofar as the same maps are available through the library of the University of Texas at Austin; these scans are explicitly placed in the public domain, so I shall use those.

[47Ronin]

I would take what Heritage History say with a very large tub of salt.

Without looking into it further, I would tend to assume that the text on the website is original, and therefore copyrightable by Heritage History. However, some of the images and maps do not seem to have been created by Heritage History, and are displayed without attribution of the original artist/cartographer. If the copyright on these images and maps is expired, and therefore in the public domain, they are permitted to publish them without paying a rights fee, but it does not entitle them to do so without attribution.

In other words, I am not convinced that Heritage History themselves are abiding by copyright law.

[Dworin]

They claim they hold copyright to the image files because they scanned the maps. But yes, I noticed the maps are not attributed (except by examining the filenames) and the maps appear changed from the original. There seem to be some questionable things going on at Heritage History and I shall stay away from their images.