Just a small point from Mikes email - the Ordnance Survey has not been tax funded at all since 1999 - and was only partly so before then. The misconception that the tax-payer funds the data has been fed on by the "free our data" campaigners .. whose use of the word "our" is as liberal as possible.<div>
<br></div><div>Just an aside, but worth mentioning :)</div><div><br></div><div>Solicitors, as it happens, pass such matters through the UK land registry - OS maps deliberately and specifically mention that they are not a legal document and cannot be used as such.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On 20 March 2010 13:34, Mike Harris <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mikh43@googlemail.com">mikh43@googlemail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000099">
Oh dear! I seem to have triggered a hornet's nest - and one that may
well belong in the legal list rather than here.<br>
<br>
For what it's worth, most Highway Authorities publish lists of the
public rights of way in their area as a spreadsheet or similar -
nevertheless leaving open the argument as to how they created the
spreadsheet and whether the OS has copyright over any grid references
(as opposed to text descriptions) therein - or (but much less often) in
the corresponding "definitive statement" (as opposed to "definitive
map" - with the "statement" having legal precedence). It is also the
case that some Highway Authorities have explicitly
stated that the data on PROWs (as opposed to any underlying mapping) is
licence-free.<br>
<br>
It might be worth bearing in mind that - thanks in part from the
pressures exerted by excellent projects such as OSM - the UK government
and the OS are in the process of considerably liberalising their
position on what may and what may not be done by taxpayers (who have
already funded both the OS and the Highway Authority!) licence-free -
bearing in mind that if a member of the public can only access legal
information about the status and location of a "public right of way" by
paying for an OS licence this might tend to reverse the normal legal
principle that "ignorance of the law is no defence" and discriminate
against the less well off taxpayer. It would also be interesting to
seek the views of the many thousands of solicitors doing conveyancing
work (who are supposed to check whether there are any public rights of
way on the property concerned) or of a similar number doing planning
applications (again a PROW search is mandatory). Somehow I don't think
even the OS would even welcome the huge influx of work by selling tens
of thousands of extra licences each year - and I don't know a single
solicitor who would do other than consult the definitive map held by
the Highway Authority.<br>
<br>
Our legal eagles may wish to revisit this issue (UK specific) quite
frequently as the new regulations settle in. As a minimum precaution I
would certainly advocate that under no circumstances should this sort
of data be used other than on ways that have been physically surveyed
on the ground. Beyond this, I would claim quite a bit of knowledge in
this area but not enough to try to argue one extreme position or
another - but let's not make this a "theatre of the absurd" - or I will
be sorely tempted to argue a "reductio ad absurdum" case <span><span> ;-) </span></span><span><span> ;-) </span></span>.<br>
<br>
Mike (with apologies for starting this hare running - and for mixing
metaphors).<br>
<br>
On 20/03/2010 11:58, <a href="mailto:newbies-request@openstreetmap.org" target="_blank">newbies-request@openstreetmap.org</a> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Fwd: Re: Re: Footpaths again (Mike Harris)
2. Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Footpaths again (James Ewen)
3. Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Footpaths again (Andre Engels)
4. Re: Footpaths again (James Ewen)
5. Re: Footpaths again (Andre Engels)
6. Re: Footpaths again (Richard Welty)
7. Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Footpaths again (Richard Weait)
8. Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Footpaths again (Phil Monger)
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<div>-- <br><font color="#888888">
<b><i>Mike Harris</i></b></font></div>
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