California Surveyors Forums

Are survey maps copyrightable? That’s the $64,000 question (I’m dating myself) that has been asked in the land surveying profession and on this forum every since I’ve been in land surveying. These last few months I have been conducting my own research on the subject in conjunction with the unrecorded maps legislation currently being reviewed by the state BOD. The legislation was sent back to committee to consider the “copyrightâ€￾ question of the unrecorded maps the legislation addresses.

Copyright is covered under federal law. The 1909 copyright law and the 1976 copyright law that superseded it, both have clauses that exempt survey maps from copyright protection. The exemption is based on the premise that survey maps convey existing conditions and facts and are not an original work or express original thoughts. The 1976 law is what we go by today for maps created after 1975. The 1909 law covers maps made before 1976. From my research I can say No, survey maps are not copyrighted, except in cases where they are. As in a lot of legal questions there is not a definitive answer, or there are conditions that affect the answer.

Based on my reading of the aforementioned copyright laws it’s a no brainer. Sounds straight forward, right? As we all know there is statute law and case law. Research of case law on the subject revealed that the courts have come down on both sides of the issue. Those that affirmed survey maps are not copyright protected have exceptions addressing the form and style of the maps. If the form and style of the presentation of the facts shown on the map is of an original nature using unique symbols, type fonts, line styles, etc., those unique features do enjoy copyright protection.

In those cases that decided survey maps are copyrighted based the decision on the maps are graphical and pictorial in nature and are a unique creation of the author. The facts presented on the maps did not enjoy copyright, but the map itself did. Clear as mud.

As I said at the beginning, this is based on my research. There is a lot more to this than I’ve mentioned here. I welcome input from anyone with more or better information on the copyright question.

So, just to be safe, I suppose what we map preparers should take from this is to make our FM, PM, ROS and topo maps so unique in from and style that they fall under definition of original works. I look forward to discovering the artist in me.

My recollection of the research I did on the subject pretty much coincides with yours, though the focus of our respective conclusions appear to differ. I have little fear of someone copying my map presentation style. Unless they're using my firm name or logo, I don't really care if someone adopts my map layout. My research was directed at finding a way to collect on an unpaid invoice by means of charging copyright infringement for the unauthorized use of factual map elements. Once I concluded that the courts weren't going to go there with me, I kind of lost interest in the matter.

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It’s one thing to have to bow down to existing copyright laws…quite another to step back and evaluate them for the accuracy of their take on mapping.

Seems to me that both those old laws suffer from a mistaken view on the nature of modern maps, at least the types of maps we surveyors produce. If “form and styleâ€￾ are the only things that count then the laws are so focused on the bathwater that they’ve ignored the presence of the baby. It’s like not allowing an author to copyright an article because the fonts she uses and the structure of her paragraphs are too similar to everyone else who writes articles.

An experienced, licensed surveyor who has been responsible for all the research, analysis, and decision making that goes into a professional boundary resolution (the foundation of virtually all of our types of maps) appreciates the old observation that surveying is both science and art. This is a fact. The longer I’m in the profession, the more I value the difference between a good map and a poor one. The differences sometimes can be amazing.

Just this year I finished a Parcel Map that reflects the three-decade long learning curve I have gone through. To anyone who understands the art and science of a thorough, professional boundary resolution, this map sits in stark contrast to another one that recorded a few years prior to mine, a few lots down. To compare the two maps is to recognize the immense difference that can exist between the quality and creativity of two practitioners who bring their analytical talents to bear on the resolution of the same city block.

The law offends me personally, and our profession in general, when it doesn’t recognize this difference. Could it be that the 1909 law was biased, coming as it did, immediately following the original surveys by the GLO when surveyors were required to follow the very strict, virtually cookbook procedures for sectionalized surveys? Most surveyors in the preceding century and a half were mandated, at any given point in time, to follow exactly the same procedures.

The game has changed. Most of our work involves parcels that have passed into private ownership. Mistakes abound, in deeds and on the ground. A body of case law has arisen. Deciphering a particular matrix of modern, adjacent parcels in order to position your client’s boundary is entirely different from robotically laying out sections based on a rigid formula.

A slavish obedience to mere form and style may have made sense a hundred years ago. It makes no sense now. It’s time the courts acknowledge this.

I found this by Slavatore Marisco of Penn State on the subject. He seems to have done some pretty extensive research on the subject.

http://surveying.wb.psu.edu/psu-surv/salsh2.html

I haven't finished reading it yet, but from what I have read it has gone to court and comes down this way: The facts you present on your map are not copyrightable because they are what they are with or without your input or representaions of them. However, your presentation of the facts, your opinions regarding those facts, and any other original content do have copyright protection.

So someone could use the information on your map, excluding expressed opinions and other original content, and recreate it all in their own work product and not violate any copyrights. But they cannot scan, xerox, or otherwise copy the exact presentation you made or extract your title block, statements, opinions, fancy unique north arrow and graphic scale to use in their work product.

It is my understanding that there is not a blanket exemption for survey maps from copyright protection.

I'll have to review the law and the cases myself to get a better understanding of it all.

It seems to me the copyright issue is separate and distinct from the filing issue. After all, there are copies of copyrighted materials available for free loan at the library which doesn't annul the copyright.