[Openstreetmap] London locations

[Lars Aronsson]

Nick Whitelegg wrote:

> While we're on out-of-copyright maps, am I safe copying stuff 
> from a 1945 OS map?  (I have a 1945 map of the Southampton area) 
> Could I put data copied from a 1945 OS map (e.g. names of 
> features in the New Forest) under a Creative Commons licence? 
> Just want to double-check it; I believe it's 50 years (i.e 1945 
> is easily safe...)

You probably cannot copy the map, since less than 70 years have 
passed.  If you compile a list of place names and coordinates, 
that list cannot be covered by copyright, but it can be covered by 
database right for 15 years.  This right belongs to you, not the 
OS, so if you want you could stop people from copying your list in 
its entirity or large portions until the end of 2020.

Based on this right, you can give people permission (license) to 
use your list under certain conditions (a license agreement).

I don't know if CC provides any standardized license agreement 
text based on database rights.  I think all of their texts are 
based on copyright.  You could probably still make reference to 
your favorite CC license and explain that even though copyright 
isn't applicable, your will and intention is to apply the same 
principle of licensing based on your database right.

In the future, perhaps CC should make texts available for the free 
licensing of database rights, patents, trademarks, and what not.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se