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Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 21:51:02 +0100
From: Dennis McClendon <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: another copyright question
Sender: Dennis McClendon <[log in to unmask]>



>I have a student who is questioning map copyright definitions.  He asked
>if he could copyright certain components of his map - eg:
>legend, computer generated colors used to depict information, etc.  (My
>response was no - please tell me if I'm wrong)

Presuming your student is in the US, there's no problem with claiming a
copyright on his map.  It doesn't matter that the data came from
public-domain sources, or even from another copyrighted map.  What
copyright protects is the *expression* of facts or ideas.  Correspondingly,
copyright does *not protect* the underlying facts or ideas in any way.  For
a map, that means that such things as line weight and color, the way in
which generalization is done, or the selection of features to be shown are
protected by copyright.  The names of features, their shapes (unless
expressive by virtue of serious
generalization/simplification/displacement), the presence or absence of
streets--these are not protected by copyright.  What about a fake street or
placename inserted to trip up copiers?  Doesn't matter.  It's still a
"fact" rather than "expression," and therefore not protected by copyright.


>2)  He indicated he would view his work as artistic, not scientific.
> (Copyright appears to differ depending upon whether the map is regarded as
>a "work of art/artistic" versus "scientific".)

This suggests that there may be a fair amount of "expression" in the map,
and that's exactly what's protected by copyright.

The current state of copyright for maps is outlined in "Copyright Law
Issues in Modern Cartography," an article by Lesley Ellen Harris that is
Chapter 5  of _Policy Issues in Modern Cartography_, edited by D.R. Fraser
Taylor, Elsevier Science Ltd 1998, LCCN 98-25805.

Substantially more detail can be found in various law review articles that
have been published since the 1991 _Feist_ Supreme Court case in the US.  I
can offer a couple of citations to anyone interested.

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Dennis McClendon, Chicago CartoGraphics
[log in to unmask]

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