Copyright on maps?

[Naima]

Hello , I am wondering about the copyrights on maps.

Lets say someone makes a new map of Game of thrones, his style, his work , but all is diectly taken from other original maps like sizes, position of cities and so on ... Whats like the copyright there?
Can the author even sell those maps as prints without telling anything to the original author? Is not copyright infringment?
I see a lot of sold maps of Game of thrones, Middle Earth and other fictional worlds ....
How does the copyright works here?

[Falconius]

That would be copyright infringement. If however you took a description of things from the books and constructed a map from that, it would most likely be not, but they could still get you on trademarking issues. The thing is though that unless you are running a business or making significant money doing it they are not going to A) notice you are doing it, or B) bother going after you. The whole collectible models/sculptures of popular superheros etc. market runs off those two principles. Almost none of that stuff is licensed, the copyright holders are aware of it, but they don't generally bother with chasing it down (except for maybe Disney).

[Mouse]

I had made that kind of assumption with my map of Malacandra, which is totally based on CS Lewis's novel "Out of the Silent Planet". In my case there isn't already a map of the novel (not one that I can find anyway), but I'm pretty sure the copyright is still held by someone.

I don't however have any plans to sell it. The only reason it bears my mark is to try and discourage other people from downloading it and selling it once Its finished.

Now that this particular 'based on', or 'inspired by' question has arisen, however, I would also be very interested to know where I stand if someone else starts selling my map without my knowledge or permission. Should I have sought permission from whoever holds the copyright before I even began Malacandra?

I mean - will I get into trouble for creating the map if someone else gets into trouble for selling it - even if I'm totally unaware that its happening?

EDIT: I've just emailed the current publisher to see if they own the copyright, or publish on licence. I'm hoping to get permission at least to finish the map (even though I'm not selling it), along with some kind of assurance that I won't get into any trouble if someone steals it from me and tries to make money from it without both our permissions to do so.

[Falconius]

In a normal world you would not be at fault when someone else commits a wrongdoing, but with the court systems we have, the world has been far from normal for a long time. That said I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Mouse]

Thanks for the reassurance, Falconius

However, now that I am unsure of myself I think it would be best if I didn't continue with the map until I hear back from the publishers. If the copyright holder does decide to place any restrictions on what I can and can't do with my map, I may not show it again, since although I know the vast majority of people would respect any stated restrictions placed on the map either by CS Lewis's copyright owner, or by me as the 'artist' who drew it, I can't guarantee that those rights would be respected by 100% of the global community.

[Falconius]

It might be one of those things where if you don't ask you won't have a problem, but if you do you will. They might be required (or be better off) to say 'no' simply to maintain their legal standing. This is all guessing though. We'll see how they respond

[Redrobes]

Basically you get to copyright the additional bit of artistic merit only. If the map is based on other peoples work and if you try to sell a map that contains their work and your own additional work then your still violating their copyright to their bit of it.

If you have sources that are all in the public domain and you make a map from that then other people can still use the public domain parts but not your map.

Ideally you should source everything yourself and then your completely free to do what you want. As Falconius says the courts have been completely corrupted for a long time over copyright and since there is money to be had on any kind of original work then there are palms to grease.

Having said that, there has been a long running fan fiction / fan generated content all over the web. So long as you are not making any money at all from your partially infringing works then in general you wont get harrassed. Taking it to the extreme end and Comic Con's of the world and all such cosplay could not exist.

If you ask the publisher for permission then you will almost certainly get a no from them. The reason is that if they said yes and if in the future your map gets more popular then you have some verbal agreement from them that you had some permission and also if it could be shown that they would sometimes offer permission then it may set a precedent and they definitely would not want to set one. Generally, if the publisher is kind then they would not respond to you so that your still in limbo but then they might continue to turn a blind eye. But if they respond with a no and they dont take action they could be deemed to have had prior knowledge of the infringement and chose not to follow up on it.

My general advice is not to use any copyrighted sources. If you do, then dont charge for the map and dont put it in a book. If anyone at all asks if they can donate to your project or map then to refuse outright. And then if thats the path your taking then dont ask permission and cease if they request it. There has to be proven a material loss for any court case. If no money ever changed hands then it becomes a lot more difficult. Their only loss is the potential loss of sales of their map because people could have got yours. But its not the same map in this case.

And as usual dont treat my advice or anyones on the internet as legal advice.

Edit - ninja'ed by Falconius !

[Mouse]

Well... tis done.

If I have to stop, then I have to stop :shrug:

[Naima]

For example I saw the map of google style of westeros ... the guy that made it sells it as prints... the same I saw for other artists even here on those forums selling their own version artistically drawed of game of throne maps ... So I was wondering if I could do a similar thing too ...

[Straf]

I found this piece on fan fiction and copyright. It isn't the official line of course, just an opinion, but seems to be consistent with what I have found regarding fan-art: so long as it's unofficial and isn't damaging to the original work then most copyright owners are going to turn a blind eye, especially if it generates sales. For example I may go and purchase this book because I was previously unaware of it.

I know of some authors who are in favour of fan-art but are against fan-fiction, one of the reasons being that if someone wrote a story that contained a plot element that the original author was using, or planning on using, the fanfic author could claim copyright infringement and it could get messy. Any sane court would find in favour of the original but the social media etc. backlash could be quite damaging 'author steals fan's idea and then sues them for it' or something.

Consider this, though, if the publisher decided to take your work and use it as a cover for a re-release or something without payment or acknowledgement how would you feel? It may well be their right to do so. I don't know.