Copyright licensing for Internet use

Using our mapping on a web site

Customers who wish to include Ordnance Survey mapping on a web site can do so under a variety of licences.  Brief guidance is given here on the main licences that might apply to help you decide which might be appropriate for you.  If you are unsure which licence applies you should contact your Account Manager, if you have one, or our Customer Service Centre. We strongly advise that you seek advice from us before you proceed with your web site development.

Terms highlighted in bold below are explained in our Copyright definitions.

If you wish to develop a commercial website service that targets consumers, you will need to enter  into a Consumer Website Services Specific Use Contract.

If your website contains (1) sponsorship or advertising material or (2) is being used for the purposes of financial gain, you will need an Internet licence (static image).

  Internet licence (static image)

This fee-based licence allows you to include map images on a website, subject to certain rules. 

We grant limited rights that allow you to include map images on a website provided there is no financial gain.  These are included in licences granting rights to publish for display and promotion.   Such rights are included as part of the Standard Licensed Use rights we grant if you license one of our data products.

Similar rights are included in our Paper Map Copying Licence.  This licence allows customers to include information to support business administration on a web site, subject to the rules stated in the licence.

We grant some rights to Publishers to display images of their products, including Ordnance Survey mapping, on the internet.  These rights are granted under the Publishing licence.

We allow the display of Ordnance Survey mapping on the internet where this enables a customer who is licensing Ordnance Survey data from one of our third party distributor to locate and specify the data they wish to license from their chosen supplier.  such services are provided under Web Data Preview terms.

We allow Partners who provide Reports Services to provide mapping online that enables customers to specify the area of interest they wish their report to cover.

You may also, subject to its terms and conditions, use a maximum of 10 map images obtained from our free Get-A-Map service on your web pages.