To answer the original Q., tho', I think it's an excellent example of that good old IT answer, "...it depends."! If you're talking about digital OS maps, my understanding is that various businesses buy licence rights from OS, which gives them the right to sell on digital copies of the original mapping. In the case of Satmap, the waters are muddied when they chose to sell the maps on industry-standard SD memory cards, fitted with propriatery file protection, which means that although the buyer has paid for the right to use the digital map of the chosen area, he / she would be hard put to do so, if they attempted to use the map files on anything other than Satmap hardware. Additonally, if the buyer breaks or looses the SD card, they would have to buy it again a second (or third, fourth etc.!) time in order to get back where they started, even tho' the purchase of the first SD card licenced them to use the map indefinitely... (I've read of cases where Satmap have agreed to replace SD cards when the owner has provided evidence of having a backup copy, although I've also heard of cases when they haven't replaced the card...) In short, it depends!!