[OSM-talk] [Talk-GB] Oxford UK 1:2500 O/S maps from 1958: copyright status of in-house copies?

[Matthew Westcott]

On 14 Feb 2009, at 15:14, Andrew Chadwick (mailing lists) wrote:

> So my question is: does in-house (no doubt _licensed_) copying at an
> unknown time affect copyright status as far as OSM is concerned, and
> does running off paper copies from microfilm at an unknown time, from
> film (re)published at an unknown time (but with apparently acceptably
> dates for the original) affect whether we can make copies for tracing
> into OSM?

Just an armchair non-expert on copyright law here, but according to  
the UK Copyright Service's factsheet on derivative works:
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p22_derivative_works.en.htm
"to be subject to copyright the creation of the derivative work must  
itself be an original work of skill, labour and judgement; minor  
alterations that do not substantially alter the original would not  
qualify."

- which would suggest that purely mechanical reproductions of an  
original work don't receive copyright protection in themselves, and as  
long as the original is out of copyright then there's no problem with  
deriving data from them.

- Matt