Re: Maps

Bill Thayer <petworth[_at_]suba.com> writes:
>
> My question sent Saturday on the above was received with a deafening
> silence. When this happens on a mailing list one tends to assume that
> one of 4 things has happened:
>
> 1) The question is of such blinding idiocy that no-one can be bothered!
> 2) It didn't go out.
> 3) Noone knows the answer.
> 4) Noone cares.
>
> This second stab may help me determine which :-)
>
> > Almost every map and plan I've ever seen has a very visible copyright
> > notice.
> >
> > At the same time, it strikes me that, short of resurveying the mapped
> > area, anyone drawing a map of a large geographical area must be copying
> > something; not only that, must be copying the specific *form*, most
> > specifically protected by copyright.
> >
> > How can one legally draw a good map -- say, of Italy? I'm not
> > referring to coloring or placenames; but what I choose to show on it,
> > and most of all, the underlying contours and spatial relationships of
> > the map itself.

Choice number (3) is most nearly correct--no one really knows. We had some extended discussions on maps sometime ago on this list, and perhaps you can search the archives. I won't try to repeat any of it now. I have considered the question at some length in an article entitled "Copyright in Electronic Maps," 35 Jurimetrics J. 395 (Summer 1995), which might give you a start. But the problem is one of the thorniest in copyright law: Copyright does not protect facts. Copyright does protect maps. Maps are representations of facts. How do we reconcile these three truisms?

Dennis S. Karjala
Professor of Law
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona 85287
602-965-4010
602-965-2427 (fax)
dennis.karjala[_at_]asu.edu
Visit the "Opposing Copyright Extension" web page at <http://www.public.asu.edu/~dkarjala> Received on Fri May 09 1997 - 22:23:30 GMT