> Thanks very much for these responses: I will pass
> on the substance. It looks as though the openstreetmap.org
> people, who are the source of the 'mischief', have not got it quite right!
Alas, I'm not so sure. In his piece on 'Maps and Copyright' in _Cartographiti 70_, March 2004, Tim Padfield agrees that:
"If the author is creating the work in the course of employment, the first owner of the copyright will be the employer, not the author."
But goes on to say:
"Copyright lasts for a long time. The standard term is now to the end of the year 70 years after the author died. This standard term applies even to works created in the course of employment, so employers need to keep track of their employees after they have left or retired. Those employees were the authors of copyright works, and their former employers need to know when they die, and thus when the 70-year term starts to run. Unlike older unpublished literary works, this standard term applies to almost all artistic works, including maps, of any date. Thus most maps whose authors died over 70 years ago are no longer protected by copyright."
This would certainly overturn the assumptions that I'd made copyright on maps. Tim also notes:
"What the law is looking for is the 'inventive or master mind', or in some cases minds, behind the work."
It is the identification of this 'inventive or master mind' that might cause problems with some commercial publications. I suspect that OpenStreetMap are playing safe.
For more detail see the article (pages 17 to 19) or better still, Tim's book:
Tim Padfield, January 2007, _Copyright for Archivists and Records Managers_, London, Facet Publishing
3rd edition; 320pp; paperback; ISBN 978-185604-604-6; £34.95
Tim Padfield is an Information Policy Consultant at The National Archives. He is chair of the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance, a member of the Museums Copyright Group executive committee, and copyright advisor to the Society of Archivists.
Best wishes
Tinho
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