Licensing

Licensing - FAQs

1. What licence do I need as a Sole Trader?

   Sole Traders can fall either under the General User Licence or the Organisational Licence. If a Sole Trader operates entirely on their own they do not need an Organisational Licence. If a Sole Trader employs anybody else, including subcontractors, who will be using the products they do need an Organisational Licence.

   Read more
2. Can I buy maps for someone else?

   Unfortunately no. Our licenses are tied to the customer who buys the mapping. The only exception to this are commercial users who can add data to their existing licenses by notifying us directly.

   You can purchase a gift voucher for somebody else though, which will allow them to buy the mapping from our site and therefore register for the correct license.

   Read more
3. What do you mean by "concurrent copies"?

   "Concurrent copies" referrs to all physical copies of a product held at any given time. If you have bought an A4 map of an area and print it twice without throwing any of the prints away, then you are holding two concurrent copies. If you print it three times in total but throw away the first two before printing the third you only hold one concurrent copy.

   If you decide to "abuse" the office printer and pre-print 20 copies of your map for the future, then you are holding 20 concurrent copies at the time you finish printing. This would mean you are 18 copies over the limit we allow and you would be in breach of your license, unless you purchase a permit for extra copies from us. The cot of extra copy capacity depends on the product size and the latest full (and easy) calculation can be found in our license schedule.

   We are relatively unique in that we trust our customers to create copies of their maps and stick within the rules we have set. Most producers of ready printed mapping forbid the copying of their maps outright, including some of the biggest names in the business.

   Read more
4. Do I need a commercial license when I use the maps for training?

   In short - if you get paid, then most likely.

   We provide exemptions to educational establishments (Schools, Colleges, Universities) and most voluntary organisations on a per request basis. We still ask these organisations to register for a commercial license with us for record keeping purposes but would typically waive the license fees.

   Commercial training providers will not ordinarily qualify for this and we reserve the right to charge commercial license fees to otherwise exempt organisations. For example, where a University or College decides to offer commercial courses outside of their usual educational setup.

   Read more