I posted a while ago about an update to the Soapbox OS section of the main website:- this was about the fiasco regarding the license required to display a segment of OS mapping on a walking website (over and above the 10 segments you get free via GetAMap). To recap, the Paper Map Copying License (PMCL) was required, as per the question in their own FAQ, and it had to be a copy of a paper map:- there was no license at all that allowed the display of maps from digital mapping software.
It now appears that the lumbering OS behemoth has been stirred into action: they are conducting an internal review of the PMCL terms, which we assume is primarily to close what they see as a loophole - a generous interpretation of the license wording. This will very likely mean the end of the simple PMCL option costing 47.50 + VAT per year for displaying routes.
For more detail see the FreeOurData Blog
The terms of the PMCL will almost certainly be reworded so that they exclude displaying the copy on a website. If no other changes are made to the licensing structure, there will be no consumer affordable way at all for walkers to show their routes on OS mapping, and their existing website maps will have to be removed. The only alternative at present is an Internet License which would be vastly more expensive.
7 Comments
Hi Geoff
I suppose I can see why the O.S want to stop their digital mapping appearing on the web, as it could become ‘free’ to those who have not bought it and just downloaded it from the web.
But surely there must be a way of displaying your own maps (that you have spent your own good money on) that are not download-able? As I see it, they are my maps once I have bought them and if I want to show them to someone then I should be able to! To pay the O.S. for a license to even display scanned paper maps just affronts my sense of right and wrong.
I think we should all just publish the maps and tell them to sue us all. Could this be a job for all the outdoor blogggers to get this campaign going?
I am not technical enough to know if there are ways of dispalying maps on a website/blog that are not download-able, but surely this would be a better way to go rather than being held to ransom by a quasi-governmental organisation that we funded ourselves through our own taxes?
What do others think?
This issue has been hammered to death before on Usenet and forums, however bad you think it is, it’s actually worse: Crown Copyright is like a potent virus. One webmaster was threatened by the OS for displaying a hand-drawn skeletal map - they claimed it was derived from OS data. A few webmasters have been displaying OS maps for a while but they are taking a big risk, I’ve stayed squeaky clean by producing my own outline maps for display together with accurate downloadable route files for import into mapping software.
This is the first suggestion I’ve seen advocating open rebellion!. I suppose nobody wants to be the first victim when the OS pick somebody and make an example of him, especially bearing in mind that they could claim compensation. I’m a sitting duck because my site is (relatively speaking) well known and even has some direct links from articles in the Guardian.
In answer to the question, it isn’t possible to display any image that can’t be captured by the reader. There are various methods of capturing it, the last resort being a crude screen-grab if all else fails.
It comes down to what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ with the O.S situation.
As a normal chap on the top-deck of the Clapham Omnibus, I think it is right that if I buy a product (let’s say digital mapping) then I can use it how I see fit, for personal use. By putting the maps on my personal (not for profit) blog that less than hundred’s read, then I think, as an ordinary chap, that that is fair and reasonable.
If Ordnace Survey think it os not reasonable then the onus is on them to prove otherwise. They surely then have the perrogative to take me to court and prove that what I am doing is not a reasonable thing to do with the product that has been sold to me.
No-where, when I purchased the product does it say that I cannot stick it on my blog - All the packageing says is ‘for personal or educational use only’. As far as I am concerned they would have to work bloody hard to prove to me, or a judge, that my blog is not for personal pleasure.
I am not a wealthy man - reasonably off perhaps - but it cannot be in the O.S.’s interest to take me to court to get money from me for putting a stupid map on my blog - that would be an outrageous waste of their time and efforts.
Could you let me know how to put maps on my blog? I would love to put the entire route that I walked from Land’s End to Jphn O’Groats on my blog - a walk and blog I created to raise £6,300.00 for Sue Ryder Care.
Having the route on the blog might even mean that mopre people read my blog and more money could be raised for Sue Ryder, so would Ordnance Survey still be keen to take a fund - raiser to court?
Well - Let me know how to do it Geoff, and let’s see!
It’s time we took these idiots on.
Oh - and if anyone from Ordnance Survey would like to comment then please fee free to get in touch with me: alan.sloman@ntlworld.com
All the best to you
Alan
Alan,
The OS care little that the blog is a non-profit site and even less about rights and wrongs, but I and many others know exactly where you are coming from.
I would be interested in seeing your route too. What map scale did you have in mind?. The available scales I have for Britain in Memory Map are 1:1,000,000 / 1:800,000 / 1:250,000 / 1:50,000 / 1:25,000.
The last two would obviously need a large number of map images and a great deal of work!. The first three are quite manageable and the whole route could be shown on a single web page at any of those scales. Maybe you could have a single overview map image for the whole route plus several zoomed-in maps of the various sections in more detail.
I’ll email you about the software side of specifying the route.
Hi Geoff
I did my walk printing out my maps at A4 size using my Anquest 1:50,000 mapping of GB. I would want to display these maps for each day’s walking at that scale so the reader could actually see the route I took and the climbs, possible views etc all in good detail. It would also be pretty cool to show the route as a 3-D view - a facility I have with my mapping software.
I agree that it is a good idea to break down the walk into sections, so that the daily routes can be seen in context of the total walk.
I have just seen your email, so I will respond to that tomorrow.
Frankly I really do not give a stuff about Ordnance Survey’s view on this at all. As far as I am concerned they are now my maps and I shall use them for my personal use on my blog.
Many thanks Geoff
All the best
Please refer to the news item that has been posted to the ePSIplus Thematic Network web site with respect to the issues that you raise. Title: PSIH blocks charitable act
ePSIplus is a Thematic Network, funded by the eContentplus programme, to support the implementation of the European Directive on Public Sector Information (PSI) Re-use, in the period leading up to its review in 2008. In the context of the use and issue Alan Sloman is a stakeholder.
The case that you have raised falls under the Directive. We will continue to monitor your case. Please submit a formal complaint to the UK Office of Public Sector Information - the complaint process is there to help.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce