Bodleian Library Map Room - COPYING MAPS AND ATLASES

For information on photography, slides and other reproduction services, click here.

The legal stuff

Maps and atlases published seventy years ago or less are in copyright. Copyright provisions apply to the Ordnance Survey in the same way as to other publishers. However, Crown Copyright exists for fifty years following the year of publication.

Photocopies of entire Ordnance Survey sheets can be provided to members of the University of Oxford, otherwise written permission from the Ordnance Survey is required. However, we are permitted to provide up to four copies of an A4 extract of a single map published by the Ordnance Survey for the purposes of "fair dealing" , which covers private or commercial research, criticism or review. However, it is their policy to refuse applications to photocopy current large-scale plans. In those cases the reader will be asked to purchase an original from an Ordnance Survey Agent. The British Geological Survey also permits the copying of A4 extracts from its maps at 1:50 000 and smaller scales.

The permission to make A4 extracts is a privilege and not a right. Readers should not attempt to obtain a mosaic of details from a single sheet on different occasions so as to recreate the entire sheet. This contravenes the spirit of the agreement.

Photocopies of maps and atlases issued by other U.K. publishers, and in all countries which have signed the international convention regarding copyright cannot be provided without the prior written permission of the publisher. A4 copies of maps from Ordnance Survey atlases are permissible.

The rule for printed books (up to 5% or one chapter of the whole can be photocopied) applies to books with substantial amounts of text. Maps in atlases should normally be treated as standard sheet maps - A4 extracts of maps in copyright are only permissible from Ordnance Survey mapping.

Exceptions

  • Legal cases: Exemption from copyright restrictions and fees occurs when reproductions are made for the purpose of a judicial proceeding, or for the purpose of a report of a judicial proceeding. The criterion must be that the maps are required for submission in court. Legal firms do not automatically apply for this exemption. Any photocopying order with this exemption must include the wording "Required for submission in court". Readers should write this phrase on the order themselves and sign it. Maps required for legal preliminaries or investigation are not exempt.

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  • Firms with a photocopying licence from the Ordnance Survey: This empowers them to photocopy maps in their own possession. It is not relevant to maps in Bodley's collection, for which permission to photocopy must be obtained from the Ordnance Survey in the usual way.

  • United States government publications: Photocopy restrictions on copyright material do not apply.

  • German wartime mapping: Photocopies of maps published by the German government during the Second World War can be provided.

  • Facsimile maps: Photocopies of facsimile maps can be provided, so long as the original image is over seventy years old and no changes have been made to the original. However, any accompanying modern text cannot be photocopied.

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