Vintage Map "Crown Copyright" Question (UK)

[EHGM]

Hi,

My first post here.

I wonder if anybody would please be able to clarify a UK copyright issue for me?

I'm working on a guide book (self published, not as a professional) in which I'd like to include small sections of vintage street maps relevant to locations.

I have two atlases I'd like to use, each published in the 1960s. Each atlas has a note in the front stating "These maps are based upon the Ordnance Survey map with the sanction of H.M. Sationary Office, Crown Copyright reserved".

So bearing in mind the Ordnance Survey aspect, here's my question:

I belive that in the UK Ordnance Survey maps (being Crown Copyright) go out of copyright 50 years after publication and become free for anyone to use as they see fit?

So in the case of these books, would that Crown Copyright be applicable?

Or, assuming the book publishers made unique changes to the OS data, would the Crown Copyright be negated and the publisher have taken copyright ownership?

Thank you in advance for anyone who can help enlighten me in any way.

[KarinNoF]

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[AndyJ]

Hi EHGM,

Yes you are correct about the duration of Crown Copyright works, which includes all Ordnance Survey maps made before 2015 when it ceased to be a government agency. As for maps which are based on OS maps, once the underlying Crown Copyright component comes into the public domain, only that part which has been added by the publishers of the atlas is subject to a new copyright, assuming what has been added meets to normal criteria of originality and not being too trivial. If you are able to easily identify what has been added and can edit the maps to exclude these features then you should be OK. If you can't identify the added elements or can't easily edit them out, you should seek permission from the atlas publishers to use the maps without changing anything.

[EHGM]

Hi, thanks for the reply. It certainly offers some clarity.

I wouldn't have a clue about the additional elements as unfortunately I don't have the original OS maps to make that comparison.

I've contacted the publishing company who seem to currently own the rights to the series but I've yet to hear back. So time will tell....hopefully!

Thanks very much again for the reply.

[Nick Cooper]

The National Library of Scotland have an extensive collection of OS maps, so you may be able to compare their versions with the street atlas:

https://maps.nls.uk/

The ones to look for would be the 6- or 25-inchs to the mile versions.