Copyright on hand-drawing from OS maps (1 Viewer)

Might seem an odd query on a birding forum, but haven't seen an answer online, and wondered if there was knowledge on here.

Basically dealing with some privately produced county birding site guides, the maps for which were copied from OS maps.

Haven't seen them myself yet.

I'm guessing if photocopied, then they are copyright and can't be distributed (even for free on a charities website). However, if hand-drawn (even if directly copied), then should be ok to use.

(Just double-checked, apparently they are 'hand drawn and so only loosely based on the OS')


Anyone know such things?

I fear not - copyright covers all forms of reproduction, and that includes hand-drawn copies.

You could ask them for permission, no idea how much it would cost nor how much bureaucracy you'd have to go through - though lots of people do so, so it can't be too arduous or expensive. Alternatively, see if OpenStreetMap (creative commons licence) contains enough detail for what you need.

I have written a couple of books that were published commercially, books that contained several OS maps both original and re-drawn (these were 2500:1 large scale and dated from 1913). The OS stipulated that the following be printed beneath each and every map:-

Reprinted from the 25'', 1913 Ordnance Survey map.

As for cost? I can't honestly remember, but it couldn't have been much (if anything). I was working full time, self financing the books, and money was a real problem (in fact the biggest cost involved re-printing photographs). best advice I can give is give OS a shout, they can't hang you for it.

Best of luck with the guides.

dantheman said:

(Just double-checked, apparently they are 'hand drawn and so only loosely based on the OS')

Click to expand...

If 'loosely based on', they are not copied, no? I guess the issue will come down to how loosely based - but if the map is a loosely based amalgamation of, for example, OS, google maps and open source maps, and not close enough to identify that it is OS, then I would think there is unlikely to be any possibility to show breach of copyright.

OS offers some of its mapping for free, but not the 50k and 25k maps.

Have a look here for details https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/opendata-products.html

Cheers all. Useful stuff and looks like there definitely are some options to explore.

Copyright law is somewhat harmonised internationally, so even though I know very little about the specifics in the UK, I feel qualified to make a few general remarks.

It makes no difference whether a work is copied by hand or copied by machine, copyright law forbids it either way. It's also not terribly relevant whether or not the copy is a good one or only approximate. The copyright holder has the exclusive right to make or distribute "derivative works" too. Jos is correct that a truly terrible copy will make it hard to prove its origins - except that you've just admitted them. More practically, if the copy is terrible it's less likely that the original author will feel the need to vindicate his copyright in the first place, but that's a risk that many publishers will not want to take, especially if there are other options - like obtaining permission or using a different map for which you do have permission.

The annotations on the maps would be copyright by whoever made the annotations - presumably the authors of your bird guides. So to reproduce the annotated maps, you'd need permission from *both* the original author of the map and the author of the annotations.

It's also worth knowing how old the books are, and how old the underlying maps are. I may be TOTALLY wrong, but I think that UK ordnance survey maps would come under Crown Copyright which I think has a term of 50 years after publication. So I suspect that for the 1913 example there was no need to pay anything at all, unless Egrets is remembering events from 1963.

Also the age of the originals might pre-date all other free online mapping resources!!