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AA payout

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Dear Ordnance Survey Limited,

In 2001 the AA paid you £20 million for breaching your copyright. Please can you give me this information by email:
1. A copy of the letter before claim you sent the AA to start the whole process.
2. Details of the 'fingerprinting" process by which you detected that the AA had copied your maps.

Yours faithfully,
S Elibank

FOI, Ordnance Survey Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Steve,

                                                                                                   

Thank you for your email of 18 April 2023.

As your request was received by Ordnance Survey on 18 April 2023, we will
provide you with a response within 20 working days, as required by the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, therefore by 18 May 2023.

In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary for Ordnance Survey to
extend this date to consider a complex public interest argument if
engaging a qualified exemption.  In such cases we will notify you of the
revised date by which we would expect to provide a response.

Should you need to contact Ordnance Survey regarding your request at any
time, please quote the allocated reference number in your correspondence.

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Elizabeth Cole

Freedom of Information Officer, Legal Services

 

Adanac Drive, Southampton, United Kingdom, SO16 0AS

[1]www.os.uk | [2][Ordnance Survey Limited request email]

Follow us: [3]Twitter | [4]LinkedIn | [5]YouTube | [6]Instagram |
[7]Facebook

Our values are: Think Customer | Thrive Together | Stay Ahead | Seize the
Moment

 

 

This email and any attachments are intended only for the intended
recipient and may contain sensitive information. If you are not the
intended recipient, please immediately delete this email and inform the
sender.

OS email communications may be monitored to ensure the secure and
effective operation of our systems and for other lawful purposes. Subject
to contract: No rights are to be derived from any proposal contained in
this email until a written agreement containing all necessary terms is
executed between the relevant parties.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Ordnance Survey Limited (Company Registration number 09121572)
Registered Office: Explorer House
Adanac Drive
Southampton SO16 0AS
Tel: 03456 050505
[8]http://www.os.uk

References

Visible links
1. http://www.os.uk/
2. mailto:[Ordnance Survey Limited request email]
3. https://twitter.com/OrdnanceSurvey
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/ordnanc...
5. https://www.youtube.com/user/OSMapping?b...
6. https://www.instagram.com/ordnancesurvey...
7. https://www.facebook.com/osmapping/
8. http://www.os.uk/

FOI, Ordnance Survey Limited

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Elibank,

Thank you for your email of 18 April 2023, requesting information from
Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
2000, as set out in the extract below:

 

“In 2001 the AA paid you £20 million for breaching your copyright. Please
can you give me this information by email:

1. A copy of the letter before claim you sent the AA to start the whole
process.

2. Details of the 'fingerprinting" process by which you detected that the
AA had copied your maps”

 

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold some of the information you have
requested.  Where the information is not held or exempt this is stated. 

 

Taking each request in turn, I confirm the following:

 

 1. A copy of the letter before claim you sent the AA to start the whole
process

 

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold a copy of the requested
information, please see the attached letter dated 8 October 1996, from
Ordnance Survey to The Automobile Association.

 

We do not hold a copy of the Memorandum referred to in the attached
letter.

 

Whilst we are able to release the attached letter, note that we have
redacted the signature on the letter as it is exempt from disclosure under
section 40(2) (Personal Information), of the FOIA as it constitutes
personal data.  Section 40(2) provides that personal data is exempt
information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is
satisfied. In our view, disclosure of this information would breach the
data protection principles contained in the General Data Protection
Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.

 

Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption and therefore not subject to the
public interest test.

 

2. Details of the 'fingerprinting" process by which you detected that the
AA had copied your maps

 

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does not hold the information you have
requested.  

 

Ordnance Survey detected that AA had copied our mapping by comparing the
maps with our own mapping and identifying where unique cartographic
styling, which distinguished Ordnance Survey mapping from other mapping
had been used by the AA; this process was referred to in the litigation as
“fingerprinting”.

 

Under the duty to provide information and assistance in accordance with
section 16 of FOIA, you may find the following published articles useful:

 

[1]Copying maps costs AA £20m | UK news | The Guardian.  In particular,
the following quote: Ordnance Survey’s “fingerprints” did not extend to
putting misleading features in maps: “There are some publishers who put
deliberate mistakes in their maps. We don’t do that - it would mislead our
customers. For us, it’s more about the style we use.”

 

[2]AA loses way in map dispute | marketinglaw (osborneclarke.com)

 

Internal Review
Your enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) 2000.  If you are unhappy with our response, you may request
an internal review with our Internal Review Officer by contacting them,
within 40 working days of receipt of our final response to your FOI
request, as follows:

Internal Review Officer
Customer Service Centre
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
Southampton
SO16 0AS

E-mail: [3][Ordnance Survey Limited request email]

Please include the reference number above. You may request an internal
review where you believe Ordnance Survey has:

• Failed to respond to your request within the time limits (normally 20
working days)
• Failed to tell you whether or not we hold the information
• Failed to provide the information you have requested
• Failed to explain the reasons for refusing a request
• Failed to correctly apply an exemption or exception

 

The Internal Review Officer will not have been involved in the
original decision. They will conduct an independent internal review and
will inform you of the outcome of the review normally within 20 working
days, but exceptionally within 40 working days, in line with the
Information Commissioner’s guidance. 

The Internal Review Officer will either: uphold the original decision,
provide an additional explanation of the exemption/s applied or release
further information, if it is considered appropriate to do so.

Appeal to Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
If, following the outcome of the internal review you remain unhappy with
our response, you may raise an appeal, within three months of receiving
our response, with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Further information can be found on the ICO website (ico.org.uk) or you
may wish to call the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Thank you for your enquiry.

Kind regards,

 

 

Elizabeth Cole

FOI Officer and Paralegal, Legal Services

 

Adanac Drive, Southampton, United Kingdom, SO16 0AS

[4]www.os.uk | [5][Ordnance Survey Limited request email]

Follow us: [6]Twitter | [7]LinkedIn | [8]YouTube | [9]Instagram |
[10]Facebook

Our values are: Think Customer | Thrive Together | Stay Ahead | Seize the
Moment

 

 

This email and any attachments are intended only for the intended
recipient and may contain sensitive information. If you are not the
intended recipient, please immediately delete this email and inform the
sender.

OS email communications may be monitored to ensure the secure and
effective operation of our systems and for other lawful purposes. Subject
to contract: No rights are to be derived from any proposal contained in
this email until a written agreement containing all necessary terms is
executed between the relevant parties.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Ordnance Survey Limited (Company Registration number 09121572)
Registered Office: Explorer House
Adanac Drive
Southampton SO16 0AS
Tel: 03456 050505
[11]http://www.os.uk

References

Visible links
1. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/mar/...
2. https://marketinglaw.osborneclarke.com/m...
3. mailto:[Ordnance Survey Limited request email]
4. http://www.os.uk/
5. mailto:[Ordnance Survey Limited request email]
6. https://twitter.com/OrdnanceSurvey
7. https://www.linkedin.com/company/ordnanc...
8. https://www.youtube.com/user/OSMapping?b...
9. https://www.instagram.com/ordnancesurvey...
10. https://www.facebook.com/osmapping/
11. http://www.os.uk/

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Steve Elibank please sign in and let everyone know.