Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California
Copyrighting public information
Some state, county and city public agencies in CA have
begun hiring outside private companies to create their
county & city base maps. These maps are then
available to the public (usually far a small fee) through
the public agency. In the past when these maps were
created ''in house'' by the public agency, they were
considered public domain, and were not copyrighted.
The new base maps are copyrighted. Can a private
company, hired by a public agency to create a public
document, hold the copyright for that document? In
these cases much of the information may have come
from field work done by the private company but would
also have come in large part from already existing
public sources. Thank you for your help.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Copyrighting public information
Yes, a private company can copyright the original expression contained in the maps it prepares. The public domain elements contained in the map are not, in an of themselves, subject to the copyright. However, the overall expression, if sufficiently original under copyright law principles, is protected to prevent unauthorized duplication, distribution, adaption, or public display of the copyrighted work.
Re: Copyrighting public information
The answer, unfortunately, is yes. Many communities use private companies not only to create maps such as you describe, but also to write laws. Believe it or not, in some areas the ordinances and statutes are copyright and can not be used without permission!
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