[OSM-newbies] newbies Digest, Vol 37, Issue 32

[Phil Monger]

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.

Just an aside, but worth mentioning :)

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.

On 20 March 2010 13:34, Mike Harris <mikh43 at googlemail.com> wrote:

>  Oh dear! I seem to have triggered a hornet's nest - and one that may well
> belong in the legal list rather than here.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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 ;-) ;-) .
>
> Mike (with apologies for starting this hare running - and for mixing
> metaphors).
>
> On 20/03/2010 11:58, newbies-request at openstreetmap.org 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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> --
> *Mike Harris*
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