The creation of 'Free to Use Data'

Ordnance Survey’s licensing model now includes ‘Free to Use Data’ terms. To benefit from these terms, you must first license data for your business use.

We define ‘Free to Use Data’ as follows:

Free to use data means data created by you:

a) using a Topographic Dataset as a source to infer the position of the Data you create; or

b) which copies in part a Feature (copying in part meaning where the Data created partially coincides with a Feature in the source Topographic Dataset);

in each case provided that the Data:

(i) does not copy a Feature in whole, and does not copy Feature Attribution in whole or in part;

(ii) does not represent a Feature or Feature Attribution in the source Topographic Dataset;

(iii) is not a substitute for a Feature or Feature Attribution in the source Topographic Dataset; and

(iv) can be used independently of Licensed Data, and

in each case only to the extent that the Data incorporates Intellectual Property Rights owned by Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Crown and which is licensed by Ordnance Survey under delegated authority from the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

So what does this mean in practice?

Well, once you have licensed the data from us for your business use, you may use a topographic dataset to infer the position of a new feature.

The topographical datasets that may be used to create ‘Free to Use’ data are:

OS MasterMap^® Topography Layer
Land-Form PROFILE^®
OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network^™ Layer
OS VectorMap^™ Local
1:10 000 Scale Raster
1:25 000 Scale Colour Raster
1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster

The features whose positions you infer must be new.

‘Feature’ means any feature represented in a topographic dataset, including without limitation any line, polygon, symbol or text.

‘Feature attribution’ means the characteristics associated with a feature (subject to the technical specification of the relevant topographic dataset).

Data that you create must be capable of being used independently of the Ordnance Survey dataset from which it was inferred.

Having created this ‘Free to Use Data’, what can you do with it?

Quoting from the terms of the licences:

‘... we grant you a non-exclusive, royalty free, perpetual licence to use and sub-license Intellectual Property Rights in Free to Use Data.’

Royalty free means it’s free for you to use without charge.

Perpetual licence means that you can continue to use the data you have created for ever. You don’t require an ongoing licence for the Ordnance Survey dataset from which you inferred the data (unless you intend to use it to display your data).

Sub-license means that you can make the data you have created available to others. You can do so on a commercial basis too if you wish.

Please also note the following:

The licence granted does not entitle you or your sub-licensees to re-create, reproduce or represent any Feature Attribution or any Feature in any Topographic Dataset (or any substitution of such Feature Attribution or Feature).
The copyright and source of the Free to Use Data must be acknowledged by including the following attribution statement: 'Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights [year of issue]'. The same acknowledgement requirement must be included in any sub-licences of the Free to Use Data that are granted, together with a a requirement that any further sub-licences do the same.

Examples of ‘Free to Use Data’:

The creation of ‘Free to Use Data’