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

Mon Aug 22 18:47:39 UTC 2005

* @ 21/08/05 02:46:19 PM richard at systemeD.net wrote:
> 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.

Hrm.

OpenStreetMap has the services of a lawyer who has been very helpful
with a lot of things so far. If more detail on some things are needed
then I can ask.

For freethepostcode.org I had considered just letting people click on
gmaps. But you can't. Landsat is too low a resolution, mostly.

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

:-)

have fun,

SteveC steve at fractalus.com http://www.fractalus.com/steve/