On 11/8/06, Andy Robinson Andy_J_Robinson@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
We have today been having a similar discussion about obtaining and digitising out-of-copyright OS mapping on the talk-gb@openstreetmap.org mailing list (http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk-gb). Some of those involved in OSM have recently got the New Popular Edition Maps for England and Wales on the web at http://www.npemap.org.uk/ and others, including myself have a small collection of other out-of-copyright OS mapping but a much more systematic and quality approach is required to really take anything further.
The maps and their scanning for the npe site were done by Richard Fairhurst, also an OSMer. He bore the original cost of finding the maps and getting them scanned commercially.
however due to licencing issues we can't use them (at least under UK case law).
So while OSM is creating new mapping we also have an interest in obtaining and utilising digital versions of out-of-copyright mapping, both in the UK and elsewhere (if only we could get the Imperial War Museum's stuff).
Other people have copies of those maps. The british library certainly does although there would likely be similar difficulties.
Best bet appears to be university libraries. For example the University of Oxford has a copy of the WW2 Antwerp map.
A number of universities hold copies of the Map of Pretoria and surrounding country from 1908 although Cambridge University is the only one in the UK
most can be found through a few searches of: