Digital elevation models for research: UK datasets, copyright and derived products

The UK is served by a wide range of digital elevation models (DEMs) that have a variety of technical specifications from several different vendors. The abundance of data presents researchers with a complex range of choices dependent upon their application (and therefore fitness-for-purpose) and desired use of intellectual property rights (IPR). This paper explores current DEM datasets of the UK and presents their use within the context of claimed copyright and IPR. In particular, responsibilities placed upon grant holders for the lodgement of research outputs by UK Research Councils places new emphasis upon data access, derived data and data re-use. The complex interplay of rights between research output stakeholders (data suppliers, data creators, data users) presents a difficult scenario for both data repositories and data depositors.