OS changes mind over copyright

[Big Jon]

As an amusing aside - the one time I have ever met an OS surveyor in the field was many years ago when mapping an area near Beecraigs, Linlithgow (can't remember the name). He was carrying a huge (and I mean HUGE) map board round and instantly tried to hide it from me - as if any of his information would be better than the pg plot I was working from.

[Knee Deep Mud!]

As an ex-OS Data Collection directorate employee, I can back-up Redpossum's statement.

Well, I can half back up the alternative story. Just as we were finishing a major development, we got a phone call from the OS, asking if they could buy our site plan drawing for incorporation into their maps without having to do their own resurvey.

Not sure what was agreed regarding copyright, though our commercial bods are usually very hot on things like that, so I would guess we only licenced the data to them.

Six years on, the 1:25000 maps now include the data. The 1:50000 maps still show the previous arrangement (apart from the diverted public right of way, which has been updated).It obviously takes a long time to incorporate updates!

I would have expected that the developers would have retained copyright in the planning drawings submitted to the council, so if the council then do pass / sell them on to the OS, then I'm sure there will be some copyright infringement going on. Also, drawings submitted to the council tend to just be pdf prints, rather than the underlying dataset. My guess is that as happened with us, the OS will get details of what developments are going on, and then contact the developer directly to buy the dataset.

[superstartradesman]

Perhaps anyone who's planning to attend the DigiMap 10th Anniversary event at Pollok Halls on the 20th January could have a word about this with Vanessa Lawrence?

http://edina.ac.uk/events/digimap10/

Or maybe get Mike Parker on the case, who's giving the after dinner speech. I hope I'm not the only NopeSport reader who got his book Map Addict for Christmas (great chapter on the OS in which, after his top 5 and bottom 5 Landranger sheets, he claims that well over nine-tenths of their business is now in digital data), and finished it thinking "jeez, I wish I'd written that"?

[Scott]

Well, looks like they're going ahead and making the data free online although it's not entirely clear from that story what exactly is included (other than "not 1:25000 or 1:50000"). And predictably, the OS website has been overloaded and crashed.
I really, really hope this is a genuine news story.

[distracted]

Yes, this one is definitely genuine, with a list of products to be released here:

http://ernestmarples.com/blog/2010/03/g ... published/

and some links from the government 'data' website:

http://data.gov.uk/data/tag/ordnance-survey

[Scott]

So raster mapping at 1:10000 and 10m contours at 1:50000. Better than nothing, I suppose, but not sure how much use it will be for orienteering mapping (urban or otherwise).

[plain lazy]

I'm getting a request for a username and password to get into the site, or it just times out.

Found this though http://parlvid.mysociety.org:81/os/ which gives zip files for different data sets

[Adventure Racer]

Works for me - I have order number 780, which suggests very few people have successfully ordered. I've asked for the lot (free bandwidth midnight to 7am, so might as well). Actually very happy to be able to get a quality gazetteer and postcode locator for free - I've previously struggled to find anything decent. Lack of 1:50 and 1:25 is obviously disappointing - though there are ways to legally get those for free if you're ingenious enough. Meanwhile there are several sets of vector data which could be very useful for O mapping, not least a full set of contours.

[Big Jon]

Seems to me the main change is that O maps based on OS material (mostly old maps originally produced in the '70's) will no longer need to pay any fee to OS - I assume this means BOF can tear up the agreement that the OS lawyers forced down their throats last year.

As a professional O mapper it makes little difference to me - but I'd put in a plea to clubs to avoid OS base maps as much as possible - they are totally crap compared to a decent PG plot.