RE: FN-FORUM: Ordnance Survey map data (was: Vector Map of UK & Ireland)

date posted 16th May 2007 14:13

Anthony,

This is getting into a very complex area of Copyright law and Intellectual
property rights. As far as I understand the OS interpretation (and I have
not seen any of this tried in case law) any information taken from an OS
copyrighted material, even in part, is subject to copyright law. This would
be the same for a cycle path as a polyline or the grid coordinates using OS
grid reference to a point. To use a polyline without involving OS data
would be to map the route using your own GPS. Finding points using an OS
map is the same as using their data and cannot be re-published without their
permission. This isn't dissimilar to the postcode and Royal Mail, you can
create a program to go surfing the net to capture all the postcodes, but you
could not re-publish that information.

As for the differences between the printed and Database versions of the Map
data, the OS see them being treated the same under copyright law.

However, the best people to talk to are the OS legal team, and they will
always take calls from anyone to clear up what can and can't be used.

If anyone thinks it useful, I can contact them and pose a few question to
republish on the forum for future reference - this may help clarify for
future projects.

Peter


> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of Anthony
> Cartmell
> Sent: 16 May 2007 13:59
> To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
> Subject: Re: FN-FORUM: Ordnance Survey map data (was: Vector Map of UK &
> Ireland)
>
>
> > The paper maps are fully covered by
> > copyright law that covers any written publication.
>
> Of course, I don't want to copy any OS map (paper or the equivalent
> electronic raster image).
>
> What I do want to do is to use the OS map to find the locations of points,
> and then publish those locations on the free Google Maps API.
>
> This is obviously possible using paper maps, as the OS have no
> restrictions on the publishing of grid references, or for using an OS map
> to find them, and this has been done since the OS grid was created. The
> question is whether the same thing is allowed using digital versions of
> the OS maps - this basically makes it easier to generate lists of grid
> references much quicker than reading off a paper map. I personally can't
> see any real difference, as the speed of reproduction doesn't seem
> relevant to copyright laws.
>
> > The data in the database
> > of OS is protected by the European Database directive and so are any
> > derivatives of this data.
>
> Quite so, I don't want to use any OS data directly. The difficulty is in
> defining what is a derivative of the data.
>
> The question is what are you allowed to use an OS map for, before you
> create a "derivative work". Is reading an OS map to find the grid
> reference of a point creation of a derivative work? How about a series of
> points to mark a cycle route along some roads?
>
> Tracklogs, and similar programs, display an OS map. You can annotate this
> map with your own markers, lines, and areas. OS seem to be saying that
> these annotations, on their own, are a "derivative work", and you are not
> allowed to make them generally available. Note that, because the markers,
> lines, and areas are all manually created by the user, they are not
> directly using OS map data.
>
> If the lines were created automatically, or copied from OS vector database
> data, then I could see that making a derivative work - you're making
> direct use of the OS copyrighted data. Also, if you manually traced entire
> sections of OS map data, in order to make a map, that would also obviously
> be a derivative work.
>
> The intention of the copyright is to protect the work carried out by the
> OS, and the revenue they make from selling the data and licenses to use
> it. I can't see how tracing a cycle route on an OS map and then putting
> that line on my website impacts the OS in any way. But we'll have to see
> what the OS say themselves.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Anthony
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