[OSM-talk] Copyright of old (Irish) maps

[Christian van den Bosch]

Hi all,

I asked OSi (the Ordnance Survey of Ireland) what the position is with 
regard to creating derivative works from copyright-expired maps.

Their response:

"The copyright on all OSi mapping expires after 75 years and if for 
example, you own an original 1846 six inch and wish to copy it, you may 
do so without copyright. But if you source the same map via the 
"Historical Data Base" copyright will apply as OSi own the intellectual 
property rights of all such mapping."

To me, this seems very strange; I would have presumed that once 
copyright expires, it's expired for good.

Anyone care to give an opinion on this?

Cheers,

Christian / cjb

http://www.cjb.ie/