This open access book explores the intertwined histories of mapmaking
and copyright law in Britain from the early modern period up to World
War 1, focusing chiefly on the 18th and 19th centuries. Taking a
multidisciplinary approach and making extensive use of the archival
record, this is the first detailed, historical account of the
relationship between maps and copyright. As such, it examines how the
emergence and development of copyright law affected mapmakers and the
map trade and how the application of copyright law to the field of
mapmaking affected the development of copyright doctrine. Its
explorations cast new light on the circulation of geographical
knowledge, different cultures of authorship and creativity, and
connections between copyright law, print culture, technology, and
society.
The book will be of interest to legal historians, intellectual property
scholars, and historians of the map and print culture, as well as those
interested in the history of knowledge and how legal control over data
has been exerted over time. It takes the reader back to the earliest
attempts to establish who can own and control geographical information
and its graphic representation in the form of a map. In so doing, it
establishes a long history of tension between the interests of private
enterprise, government, and the public. The book's investigations end in
the first decades of the 20th century, but the tensions it identifies
persist in the 21st century, although today paper maps have been largely
replaced by web-based mapping platforms and digital geospatial data.
The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC
BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was
funded by the Australian Research Council.
