Like Chris, I fear that Julie is misinterpreting the term "first published". 'First published' refers to the original issuance of a specfic edition/revision etc of a particular sheet. It does not refer to the first issuance of ANY sheet in a series for the purpose of determining the copyright status of the series as a whole. Otherwise you end up with a series begun in the 1950s being public domain by Julie's interpretation, even down to the editions of sheets that are only now rolling off the press and the publisher is trying to sell! That simply doesn't make sense. copyright is intended to protect the commercial interest of a publisher, by giving him a set but finite period in which he alone can publish the item (unless he decides to waive or on-sell his rights). So 'First published' really means that if a particular sheet is reissued/reprinted later, with no other change (so it's not a new edition or a revision of an already-published edition), then the copyright date remains that of the original issue. In other words, if a specific edition of a sheet sells out, and the publisher reprints it, this act of reprinting does not revise the copyright date. So a publisher can't use the physical act of reprinting to keep something in copyright eternally, anymore than a publisher can do this with a book (otherwise Shakespeare would still be in copyright as his works have never gone out of print!) In Australia, all government-produced maps (by *any* government, local, state, federal or foreign) is in copyright for 50 years from date of original publication. So like in Britain, a map produced on or before 31 Dec 1965 is public domain in Australia from and after 1 Jan 2016. Maps produced by non-government publishers have a 50 year copyright period if they were produced before 1955, and 70 years if published after 1955 (the extra 20 years being the result of the 'Mickey Mouse' clause of a US 'free trade' deal with us in 2005, that added 20 years to anything not already public domain). Also, Rick and Julie should be ocnsidering the copyright law of the country they are in, not the law in the country that produced the map. Julie should be considering US copyright law if she intends scanning and making the scans available through a US-based website (BTW, what is the US copyright period for government produced maps?), irrespective of the place of publication or the country of residence of the copyright holder. Of course, it is always good manners, and politic, to check with a foreign government first in case they have a different copyright period, and would prefer if something otherwise public domain in your country, was not made available until the copyright expired in their own country. If the UK period of 50 years is longer than the US period, then Julie can technically scan and make available any maps that are public domain according to US law, but risks losing UK publisher goodwill and making criminals of any UK residents who access the material on her website. If the UK period (50 years) is shorter than the US period, then US law forbids her to make copies of maps younger than the US period, even if already public domain in the UK, unless she has permission to do so from the original copyright holder (UK National Archives or a specific govt agency). I'd be interested to know what the copyright periods are for maps in the US and Canada, both by govt and by non-govt publishers... Brendan Whyte National Library of Australia > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 16:25:01 +0000 > From: Rick Grapes <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: FW: Crown copyright update for scanning > > Quesiton? Does this also apply to Canadian Crown Copyright? I suspect not. If not, what are the copyright standards for Canada as compared to UK? > > Thanks, > Rick Grapes > BYU Maps Cataloger > > From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Julie Sweetkind-Singer > Sent: Monday, February 29, 2016 1:14 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Crown copyright update for scanning > > Hi, all, > > I've been emailing back and forth with Judy Nokes, the Information Policy Adviser at The National Archives in the UK. We have a number of map sets we wanted to scan and I was asking for permission to do so for research purposes, assuming they were in copyright. Here's what Judy has to say about it. > > "If the maps are Crown copyright and have been published, then anything you have which is dated prior to the end of 1965 will now be out of copyright. As I said before, you don't have to, but we would appreciate that the source of the maps is duly acknowledged." > And > "To explain, Crown copyright lasts for 50 years from the end of the year in which material was first published, as referred to in section 163 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988." > > Note in the second sentence she states that is "50 years from the end of the year in which material was first published." This means that a set such as a Kenya 1:50,000 set that was started in 1957 but not completed until, say, 1975 is fair game for the whole set. > > We are now going through all of our maps to find Crown Copyright maps with a start date prior to the end of 1965 to scan. Judy stated that I no longer need to ask permission for each set, it is granted by their laws. > > Here is the license as an FYI. > www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/> > > I hope this is helpful to those of you scanning maps from your collections. As we get ours scanned, we'll create index map shapefiles and add to Chris Thiry's site. > > Best, > > Julie > > **** > Julie Sweetkind-Singer > Assistant Director of Geospatial, Cartographic and Scientific Data > Head Librarian, Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map Collections > 397 Panama Mall, MC: 2211 > Stanford University > Stanford, CA 94305 > 650-725-1102 > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 16:43:31 +0000 > From: "Fleet, Christopher" <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: Crown copyright update for scanning > > Hi Julie, > > Many thanks for bouncing this message on, which is most interesting. > > Your interpretation here of 'first published' certainly goes against the interpretation we have had in the National Library of Scotland for many years. We have interpreted 'first published’ as the first date on which an individual copyrightable work is published. So this would mean when an individual map sheet – as an individual artistic work under the Act – was published, not the earliest item in the wider series. > > Take the example of a set of books, assuming these were written by a government department and therefore Crown Copyright, released successively over 10 years: we would not calculate copyright duration for each volume based on the release date of the first, we would calculate duration individually per volume. > > Surely the duration of copyright is per work not per series, and in this case that means per sheet, not per map series? For your Kenya 1:50,000 series that was started in 1957, those sheets that were published in or prior to 1965 are out of copyright (in 2016), but not the sheets published after this time. > > The Ordnance Survey's statement of copyright for public libraries at: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/licensing/licences/public-libraries.html states that 'For Ordnance Survey maps which are less than 50 years old copying is likely to be an infringement of Crown Copyright...' > > I am no lawyer and we may be interpreting things incorrectly - so I'd be very interested in further thoughts on this. > > Chris > > Chris Fleet > National Library of Scotland > 159 Causewayside, Edinburgh EH9 1PH > > Tel: 0131 623 4670 > Email: [log in to unmask] > Website: maps.nls.uk > Twitter: @natlibscotmaps > Facebook: /NationalLibraryofScotland