> If I assign latitude and longitude to postcodes by using a map in > which copyright subsists (but which does not have those postcodes) > then, unless I am copying some element of the map in so doing (which > is unlikely with users pointing and clicking) I very much doubt that > the copyright could somehow attach to the postcode database I then > generated. Not least because it is unlikely that copyright could > attach to it.
According to the OS Licensing team (who I now understand to be the Licence Sales team) "tracing" information from a map creates derived data from that map: I suppose the argument is that you are using OS's hard work to locate your point. And OS-derived data, as we all know, is subject to Crown Copyright and licence fees. Of course there must be a limit: if you record a GPS tracklog for a bike ride that you navigated using an OS map, that probably isn't derived data, although some paranoid people think it might be. In my opinion you're deriving a line of points from the roads that exist, not the OS map. But perhaps it _isn't_ derived data at all: no-one really knows. The famous AA case was clearly mass-copying of mapping, and a breach of OS copyright, but no-one has ever been taken to court for smaller instances of "derived data" publication without a licence from OS as far as I'm aware. Anyway, my sites (for the CTC) display quite a bit of OS-derived data, traced from both OS 1:50k digital mapping and Google's TeleAtlas maps (some even from the routing available from Google, so an accurate copy of the TeleAtlas vector data held by Google). And OS Licensing Sales people are fully aware of this. I'm reasonably happy that we're not breaking copyright: we're not copying their maps in any way that would reduce OS's income (probably the opposite). Three years, so far, and no letters from lawyers yet. It would be "interesting" if the UK's largest cycling organisation was able to show routes and locations from anywhere in the world apart from in the UK. The publicity, if OS did get aggressive, might be quite useful. The continued existence of the Met Police's crime map (http://maps.met.police.uk/), which appears to be displaying OS-derived Census data, is reassuring :) Cheers! Anthony -- www.fonant.com - Quality web sites Fonant Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company No. 7006596 Registered office: Grafton Lodge, 15 Grafton Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1QR _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
