[geowanking] GB Historic Counties polygons

[Richard Fairhurst]

Ian Turton wrote:
> I know that for a while the British Library (who were partners) who
> scanned their maps tried to claim the copyright on the scans of the
> maps but we refused to believe that scanning a map was sufficient to
> give you a copyright. It's been a while but I could probably drag up
> the references to the original case law - it was something to do with
> pictures of works of art some museum was arguing they owned copyright

Bridgeman vs Corel. Worth Googling. Interlego vs Tyco is also relevant.

Note that the US judge in BvsC declared that no copyright subsisted  
under _US_ law, and that he believed this would also be the case under  
UK law. However, recent legal opinion (a book wot I read in  
Blackwells, Oxford, but was too tight to pay for) suggests that the  
latter is not true. So Vision of Britain are entitled to claim  
copyright if they want to.

_But_ we're talking about rederiving the factual information  
represented on the maps, not the images of the maps themselves (which  
is what BvsC was all about). My view is that trying to restrict this  
is legally extremely dubious and morally very wrong...

...and that pretty much explains the licence for my scans (and  
others') at npemap.org.uk - http://www.npemap.org.uk/tileLicence.html  
. :)

cheers
Richard