On 13 September 2017 at 14:40, Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com wrote:
Were not the original maps "Crown Copyright"? And if so, how does that affect the statement below?
These were indeed Crown property, so copyright periods should be calculated from creation and are unrelated to life periods. My understanding of British IP in the 19th century, is that 14 years would apply (I think that's right for 1891, feel free to correct me with a source). I doubt that copyright would have been renewed by the publisher, in fact I'm not sure that's possible for Crown works, though if it were, then another 14 years could be added. 28 years could then take a small number of the maps up to 1911 and into the new copyright act, giving them 50 years from creation date.
However you would calculate it, they are definitely copyright expired more than 80 years ago, and mostly beyond having 100 years of public domain status. Getting the best template on the Commons image page, is perhaps something to investigate longer term with a bit of housekeeping intelligently based on dates, especially if the copyright calculation takes us beyond 1923 so that the US copyright part needs adjusting. I'm not in a rush to improve that bit, compared to getting the full set up on Commons first.
Thanks for highlighting it, Fae