[OSM-talk] Licence of Soviet military topographic maps

[Liz]

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010, Jaak Laineste wrote:
>  Unfourtunatly
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Soviet_Union does not
> mention anything about maps. Were soviet military maps
> subject of copyright within USSR at all? This seems to be the key
> question.
> 
> According to my common sense, there are several ways how I could
> protect my stuff (software, maps, images etc), main ones:
> a) copyright laws, automatic
> b) try to keep it secret
> c) patents, trademarks

I read the whole article and decided that USSR copyright was issued to 
creative works, of which a map is usually one.
Whether copyright extends to facts on the map is not mentioned.

Very interesting, with "the boot on the other foot" is the statement from UK's 
Ordnance Survey claiming that the Russian maps must be stolen from their 
mapping
http://images.jomidav.com/sovietmaps/OS%20Statement.pdf
a claim which has been thoroughly disputed by map scholars reviewing the 
actual maps
http://images.jomidav.com/sovietmaps/unclejoe1.pdf
and 
http://images.jomidav.com/sovietmaps/unclejoe2.pdf


Checked Russian maps of Australia available on the internet and most 
disappointed. One gold mining area in low resolution only.