Many practitoners in real estate including title companies, lenders, sellers and buyers that reuse old surveys without consent of the original surveyor violate copyrights of the survey. Surveys are signed and often sealed with a date and the surveyor discloures of obtaining permission to use the survey. Not only is it a violation of the copyright, it can be out of date to the point of providing inaccurate information of the current property. If the seller's affidavit at closing states that nothing has changed on the property as per the old survey, this may open the seller up for a legal risk. Things missed can be new boundaries, any encroachments, title issues, deed descriptions. Last point, this is the work product of the surveyor and they need to be protected.