Re: FN-FORUM: Postcode Radius Search

date posted 31st March 2008 18:03

> By the way, someone mentioned the legality of the data. You can't
> copyright coordinates,

Coordinates of locations derived from OS data are considered "derivative
works" of OS mapping and as such are covered by Crown Copyright.

Coordinates of locations derived from data that was originally derived
from OS data may not be covered in the same way: it's fine to digitise
locations and routes from Google Maps and store them (within the terms of
use of Google and TeleAtlas), but if you digitise locations and routes
from an OS map that data remains the property of the OS and you need a
licence to share it publicly. Rather oddly the required licence is called
a "paper map copying licence" :) It's very difficult to get straight
answers from the OS about these things, but the OpenSpace API agreement
gives a flavour of it all: any data you generate by clicking in an
OpenSpace map belongs to OS and is copyrighted by them.

> but you can copyright an entire database. So as
> long as you're using a public domain database or a licensed database,
> then there's no legal issue there.

Some of the outbound postcode location databases are _not_ public domain
or licensed, and should not be used if you are worried about such things.
One of the two text files that the OP has looks rather like a well-known
and well-distributed but technically illegal database...

Cheers!

Anthony
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