[Talk-GB] Definitive Public Right Of Way map for Northumberland

Nick Whitelegg Nick.Whitelegg at solent.ac.uk
Thu Apr 21 15:27:10 BST 2011


>In short, you can't copy from the maps because they are a derived work
>from a copyrighted Ordnance Survey base map. If you get permission
>from the appropriate council, you can, however, make use of the
>written document known as the "Definitive Statement" as OS have agreed
>not to claim an IP rights in it.

While we're on this subject I'd just like to ascertain that something I did the other day is definitely OK. A well respected member of the community inferred so some 4 years ago when I came across this problem before, but now we've been thinking about this sort of stuff more it would be good to get other opinions.

It regards permissive footpaths. Often these are indicated by a notice accompanied by a map showing the course of the path, based on an OS map. Now the *general direction* to travel I do get from these maps (no other waymarks present) but in terms of the exact line on the ground, I follow the actual visible path or track. There is one of these on each end of the path.

I did enter said path to OSM, tagging with foot/horse=permissive as well as highway=track. I presume this is ok, but if adding the permissive status is infringement of copyright, here are the IDs of the ways making up the offending path:

109306789
109306812

(just outside Stockbridge, Hants)

Would be good to know what the general consensus on these permissive path situations is - these maps come up quite often.

Thanks,
Nick
-----"Robert Whittaker (OSM)" <robert.whittaker+osm at gmail.com> wrote: -----
To: talk-gb <Talk-GB at openstreetmap.org>
From: "Robert Whittaker (OSM)" <robert.whittaker+osm at gmail.com>
Date: 21/04/2011 01:41PM
Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Definitive Public Right Of Way map for Northumberland

On 21 April 2011 12:14, Graham Stewart <graham at dalmuti.net> wrote:
> Where do we stand if I manually create a way (i.e. by tracing from Bing
> imagery or by surveying it) and then refer to this published definitive
> map to determine if it is a designated footpath/bridleway/BOAT? (And
> possibly get other details that could be used in tags/notes like an
> identifier).
>
> Presumably this would be using the council's data and we would need some
> form of agreement with them?

See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_Tagging_Guidelines#Copyright_issues_.28VERY_IMPORTANT.21.29

In short, you can't copy from the maps because they are a derived work
from a copyrighted Ordnance Survey base map. If you get permission
from the appropriate council, you can, however, make use of the
written document known as the "Definitive Statement" as OS have agreed
not to claim an IP rights in it.

Depending on the council, you may be able to get hold of a copy of the
Definitive Statement and get permission to use it. (The documents have
to be available for inspection by the public, but how easy it is to
then make a copy is not clear. Some councils have electronic versions
that they may be happy to send you, or you could try a formal request
under FOI or EIR legislation. However if you go down they route, they
might be less keen to grant you the necessary permissions to re-use
the data in OSM.) The quality of the route descriptions in the
definitive statements is quite variable. For some it is very easy to
match them to a location / path in OSM, for others it is pretty
difficult.

Robert.

-- 
Robert Whittaker

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