Colleagues
Every now and again I have received enquiries about copyright in the
Ordnance Survey's National Grid, to which I have not been able to give a
satisfactory reply. I am very pleased to say that I have now obtained
definitive guidance from the OS's legal advisor, and I pass it on for
information. I shall also be supplying a note for publication in ARC.
The OS does not claim any copyright in the National Grid, which is based on
a mathematical formula, but since the Grid as a whole was published in the
late 1940s Crown copyright in it would by now in any case have expired.
National Grid references, in the form NY 123 456, were first published
during the 1950s but the OS has no definitive date of first publication.
Moreover, the use of such references is use of the formula, rather than
reproduction of it, which would not be an infringement even if the formula
were protected. Since the OS is keen to encourage the use of National Grid
references, it seeks to make no licence or royalty charge and it has not
sought to restrict their use.
Archivists and others are therefore free to use National Grid references to
fix the position of places and objects, for instance in their descriptions
of photographs and other documents. Use of National Grid references in
databases or in lists of place names is similarly unrestricted. As a
courtesy, the Ordnance Survey should be acknowledged as the source, but
Crown copyright need not be acknowledged.
Tim
----------------
Tim Padfield
Copyright Officer
Curator of Photographs
Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on National Records and
Archives
The National Archives
Kew
Richmond
Surrey TW9 4DU
Tel +44 (0)20 8392 5381
Fax +44 (0)20 8392 5286
E-mail [log in to unmask]
Website http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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