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Are mapping information copyrighted?

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  • 07-03-2013 1:47pm
    #1
    Blisterman
    Registered Users Posts: 7,452 ✭✭✭


    Ordnance survey, and other map companies claim their maps are copyrighted, and any use of them must be licenced.

    But I was thinking about this. Surely all they are are an indication of the actual positions of landscape, buildings, and roads. Can they really claim copyright over this?

    So, I'm curious, if someone were to use their information as a basis for their own maps, without using any of the mapping manufacturers logos or symbols, would they be infringing on copyright?


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    #2
    valleyoftheunos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,332 ✭✭✭valleyoftheunos


    Blisterman wrote: »
    Ordnance survey, and other map companies claim their maps are copyrighted, and any use of them must be licenced.

    But I was thinking about this. Surely all they are are an indication of the actual positions of landscape, buildings, and roads. Can they really claim copyright over this?

    So, I'm curious, if someone were to use their information as a basis for their own maps, without using any of the mapping manufacturers logos or symbols, would they be infringing on copyright?

    the Copyright exists over the maps themselves ie. the lines on the page, not the actual positions of landscape etc. Simply removing logos etc doesn't mean its not an infringement of copyright.


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    #3
    Blisterman
    Registered Users Posts: 7,452 ✭✭✭Blisterman


    But the lines on the page all represent physical things, if you were to map them yourselves, your lines would be in essentially the same places, and would be indistinguishable from theirs.


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    #4
    Paulw
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 13,381 Mod ✭✭✭✭Paulw


    Blisterman wrote: »
    But the lines on the page all represent physical things, if you were to map them yourselves, your lines would be in essentially the same places, and would be indistinguishable from theirs.

    So, why not do that? Go out and map the places yourself, rather than breaching copyright. :rolleyes:


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    #5
    Blisterman
    Registered Users Posts: 7,452 ✭✭✭Blisterman


    Firstly, I'm not planning on copying maps. I'm really just curious as to how they can claim copyright over it.

    Thinking about it, could the town planners who mapped out the streets in the first place, claim copyright over them?

    I actually don't understand copyright law at all. It really boggles my mind.


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    #6
    Paulw
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 13,381 Mod ✭✭✭✭Paulw


    Town planners generally don't provide the detailed maps that the OS do. They only provide very small section maps.

    OS maps are very detailed, but it depends on what type of map you want.


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    #7
    CIARAN_BOYLE
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,599 Mod ✭✭✭✭CIARAN_BOYLE


    Blisterman wrote: »
    But the lines on the page all represent physical things, if you were to map them yourselves, your lines would be in essentially the same places, and would be indistinguishable from theirs.

    but then you would be mapping them yourself and you would be doing work rather than piggybacking on their work.

    They spend money making and updating the maps but anyone who bought their map and copied it without their symbols would be able to make a sell maps cheaper since all they had to worry about was printing costs.

    The copyright is a way of protecting the work that they've done in making the map from being used by others.

    You could of course still make your own maps and produce them without violating copyright

    For example their Éire map costs €4.58

    Thats could be seen as 20 cents copying €4 towards the copy of mapping and 38c profit

    http://shop.osi.ie/Shop/Products/StockedItemsWH03/Ireland+Series(StockedItems)/Default.aspx

    If someone else bought one map and copied it they wouldn't have any expenses other copying and the copier could sell it for 50 cent easily enough and make money until OSI had to shut down because no one was buying their maps anymore.

    Basically the copyright is a protection for the OSI so that no one can use their mapping work to make money.


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    #8
    valleyoftheunos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,332 ✭✭✭valleyoftheunos


    Blisterman wrote: »
    But the lines on the page all represent physical things, if you were to map them yourselves, your lines would be in essentially the same places, and would be indistinguishable from theirs.

    Copyright relates to the work, your map would be a different piece of work, even if it ended up being identical. You would have copyright over your version and the OS over their's.
    Blisterman wrote: »
    Firstly, I'm not planning on copying maps. I'm really just curious as to how they can claim copyright over it.

    Thinking about it, could the town planners who mapped out the streets in the first place, claim copyright over them?

    I actually don't understand copyright law at all. It really boggles my mind.

    No not at all, but they could claim copyright to the Maps they drew of them.

    To be honest I don't have a great understanding of it myself (and I'm supposed to). Its a bit complex and you have to understand the fundamental concepts of it, which I'm not doing a great job of explaining here;)


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    #9
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,382 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    A huge amount of work goes into mapping a district and keeping the data up to date. If an auctioneer or firm of engineers wants to use such a map and reproduce part of it in their documents then OSi is entitled to assert their copyright and claim a royalty payment for the reproduction of their copyright data in print or digital form.

    The paper maps are cheap enough to buy, the issue is that if businesses or professional people want to use the maps in the course of their business then OSi are entitled to a slice of the action, hence royalty payments for the reproduction of the map data.


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    #10
    the world wonders
    Registered Users Posts: 489 ✭✭the world wonders


    coylemj wrote: »
    A huge amount of work goes into mapping a district and keeping the data up to date.
    More to the point it involves creative work -- selection of features to include, fonts, colours, contours, icons, lines, label positioning. It's far more than just a mechanical process of transferring geographical features to ink and paper.


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