[geo-discuss] Re: Fwd: [ordnancemaps] Soviet Military Maps of UK

Sun Aug 21 13:46:19 UTC 2005

On 20 Aug 2005, at 20:45, SteveC wrote:

> * @ 20/08/05 08:02:36 PM richard at systemeD.net wrote:
>
>> http://www.cartography.org.uk/Pages/Membership/DesignG/Copyrit1.html
>>
>> I'd like to seek further advice on that, but if true, I'd advise
>> everyone to snap up a copy of the Getmapping aerial atlas of England!
>
> Which is not only copyright Getmapping, but also the OS.

Indeed - or at least, it's certain that the images themselves are. But 
that's where it starts to get interesting.

To draw a parallel: you can't copy street names from an OS atlas. The 
street names themselves are facts (the road outside my house just is 
Nine Acres Close, and that fact can't be copyrighted by anyone), but 
the OS own the copyright in the arrangement of the facts. That's my 
non-lawyer's understanding.

_But_ I can't see any arrangement of the facts in an aerial photograph. 
So I'm not sure what grounds they have to restrict derived works (e.g. 
tracing roads onto a vector map). Maybe it's contractual ("you agree 
not to trace this map") rather than statutory copyright law.

Richard

(When I search Google UK for "aerial photograph derivative works 
copyright map" the first result is from the OSM mailing list - ha.)