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

[Matthew Sammon]

Christian,

I submitted a similar question to Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) last
year. The reply you were sent is misleading.

Firstly, OSi was established on 4 March 2002
(http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZSI73Y2002.html) as a "body corporate
with perpetual succession and an official seal and power to sue and be
sued in its corporate name".

Paper maps the Ordnance Survey (in the 26 counties) published prior to
this date always(?) had a "Copyright Government of Ireland" (or
variants thereof) notice only -- no OS copyright notice.  Section
191.(4). of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 states that
"Government copyright in a work shall expire 50 years from the end of
the calendar year in which the work was made". So at the moment any
original OS map from the 26 counties published before 1956 is in the
public domain.

OSi publications from on or after the establishment date have
"Copyright Ordnance Survey Ireland YYYY" printed on them and fall
under the non-Government copyright parts of the same Act. In other
words:
"The copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or
an original database shall expire 70 years after the death of the
author, irrespective of the date on which the work is first lawfully
made available to the public."
"The copyright in a work specified in subsection (1) which is
anonymous or pseudonymous shall expire 70 years after the date on
which the work is first lawfully made available to the public."
So, at the earliest, OSI material won't be in the public domain until
2072. This assumes that OSi material is classed as anonymous.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA28Y2000.html

So whever your replied to your email :
1. Possibly did not know or want you to know of the 50 year rule for
Government copyright.
2. Incorrectly gave 75 years instead of 70 years as the normal term of
copyright.
3. Referred to an OSi product, the "Historical Data Base", which does
not exist. Presumably they meant Ireland's Historical Mapping Archive
(http://www.irishhistoricmaps.ie). They may be referring to it as a
"data base" to indicate that the historical OS maps in question (many
[most?] of which OSi did not own) were scanned and subsequently stored
in a database. This database was augmented with additional information
(features were digitised, placenames associated with scanned maps etc)
hence creating a new "artistic work" or "original database".

Here is my original question to OSi, with original reply below it:

QUESTION (22 Sep 2005)---------------------
Just a few quick questions about copyright if I can...

Section 51.4. of the Copyright Act, 1963 states that
"The copyright in an artistic work which belongs to the Government by
virtue of this section—

      ( a ) where the work is an engraving or a photograph, shall
continue to subsist until the end of the period of fifty years from the
end of the year in which the work is first published, and

      ( b ) in the case of any other artistic work, shall continue to
subsist until the end of the period of fifty years from the end of the
year in which the work was made."

Section 191.(4). of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 states
that "Government copyright in a work shall expire 50 years from the end
of the calendar year in which the work was made".

Given the above,

1. Is it possible for you to provide me with a list of those works
published by Ordnance Survey (the organisation preceding OSI) that are
no longer under copyright?

2. If not:
 a. why not, and
 b. can it be assumed that any Government of Ireland work made and
published before 1955 which has not subsequently been updated is out of
copyright?

REPLY (23 Sep 2005)---------------------

With regard to the copyright issues raised in your Email please note the
following:
Copyright in OSi maps and maps based on OSi data are now protected under
the Copyright and related Rights Act 2000.
Under the Act, Copyright in "Artistic" works, which include maps,
charts, plans and photographs are protected for
70 years from the end of the calendar year it was first made available.

Government of Ireland copyright is protected for 50 years from the date
it was first made available.

All OSi products are readily identifiable and within the footnote that
appears on all our publications copyright
can be ascertained as the Compiled, Printed and Published dates are
displayed.

We do not provide a listing of OSi out-of-copyright products as they run
into many thousands of items, but by consulting the footnote of any
publication you can readily establish the copyright status.

For further information please log onto www.osi.ie
---------------------

Matthew