Re: Geo::Postcode

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On Fri, Sep 03, 2004 at 06:44:06AM +0100, Simon Cozens wrote:
> Postcodes aren't factual data - they're an arbitrary (although well
> structured) label attached to your location by the Post Office in a big
> database called the Postcode Address File. The Post Office owns PAF.

That's fairly tenuous. Compare for example your phone number. You could
make the same arguments there, but there is case law to say that phone
books can only be copyrighted by their arrangement, not by their facts.
So, for example, retyping the entire phone book and releasing it in the
same format would be a breach of copyright, but reformatting it to, say,
be ordered numerically by phone number, wouldn't.

> See, for instance,
> http://census.ac.uk/cdu/Datasets/Lookup_tables/Postal/All_Fields_Postcode_Directory/Conditions_of_use.htm
> particularly the bit about unit postcodes being copyright Post Office.
 
> And also the fact that you need to licence Royal Mail's own postcode-geography
> mapping data set:
> http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400088&mediaId=1400107
> although I've never found anything on royalmail.com about the copyright status
> of the data.

IANAL, but I don't believe that either of these mean you couldn't build your own
postcode mapping. If you license it from them you'll be restricted by
contract law on what you can do, but if you don't, and build your own, I
don't think copyright law becomes an issue.

Tony