Hart Publishing Copyright and Cartography: History, Law, and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge

This open access book explores the intertwined histories of mapmaking and copyright law in Britain from around 1700 to the end of World War I. 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, and empire. 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 information and how legal control over data has been exerted over time. In the 21st century, paper maps may have been largely replaced by geographical APIs, yet debates over who owns and controls the underlying geographic data not only persist but are amplified. This book takes the reader back to the earliest attempts to assert ownership over geographical information and its graphic representation in the form of a map. The open access edition of this book is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Australian Research Council.