[OSM-talk] GPX tracing out of copyright maps

[Lars Aronsson]

Nick Hill wrote:

> Given the map was published by George Philip & Sons Ltd, it 
> would be fair to assume that company was first owner of 
> copyright.

The easy test case is to ask what would happen if a (slightly 
revised) 2nd edition were published a few years later?  Would the 
original "author" be asked for permission again and get new money?  
My guess is that this is the case for poetry, novels and 
textbooks, but not for encyclopedias and maps.  How many articles 
from the 11th edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) were 
reused unmodified in the 12th edition?  Were the original authors 
of these articles paid anew?  Could individual article authors 
withdraw their contributions from the new edition, the way a 
copyright owner is supposed to control publication?

If George Philip & Sons in 1960 reprinted a map from 1930, did 
they pay new royalties to the 1930 cartographers?  I guess not.  
So if they are going to claim copyright today, based on the death 
year of the 1930 cartographers, the heirs of said cartographers 
have some claims to royalties for all reprints in the 1960s.

Copyright is ultimately an issue of what's worth going after.  My 
estimate is that map companies won't find it worth going after any 
copyrights for anything published more than 70 years ago.  And for 
all practical purposes, this passes the "duck test" for being in 
the public domain.  (If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, 
and quacks like a duck, it most likely is a duck.)


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