free and open geospatial content: intellectual property ...2007.foss4g.org/attachments/214/foss4g...
TRANSCRIPT
Geoff Zeiss, Director of Technology
Free and Open Geospatial Content:
Intellectual Property Rights and Cost
FOSS4G 2007
Victoria BC
Overview
• Spatial Data:
Intellectual Property
Rights and Price
• Spatial Data Access
Worldwide
• Future
Availability of Geospatial Data is
Changing Dramatically
• Rise of commercial data providers
– TeleAtlas (Tom-Tom), Navteq, Digital Globe, GeoEye, …
– New Technologies: Microsoft Vexcel, Pictometry, Lidar,
Laser Scanning
– New EO satellites
• GPS is a web 2.0 device.
– Enables creation of spatial data by anyone
• Availability of geospatial data on Google Earth/MS
Virtual Earth/MapQuest/Yahoo Maps and GPS are
changing the playing field.
Intellectual Property Rights and
Cost
• IP and Cost are two separate issues
–Variety of business models
worldwide
–Variety of IPR worldwide
US
• All government data is Public Domain.
• Data collected by the Federal
Government is available free of charge.
• http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/
• Data collected by local governments is
still characterized by a variety of
business models, but there is some
interesting precedents in the State of
California.
US
Allows creation of free-to-access services such as• gsmloc.org comprehensive database of
GSM cell towers to allow people to locate themselves without a GPS
• Gutenkarte shows all the geographic locations mentioned in a particular book.
• Around the World in 80 Days
California
• California Public Records Act (CPRA) requires that state and local
government records should be accessible to anyone requesting them
for no more than the cost of duplication.
• Disagreement as to whether this act applies to spatial data, specifically,
parcel basemaps maintained by the 58 counties in California.
• Until recently, 21 of California's 58 counties sold their digital parcel
basemap data at higher prices than the cost of copying.
• The Attorney General of California issued an official opinion to the
effect that digital parcel data is covered by the CPRA
– Convinced eight more counties to make their digital parcel data available for free or
at nominal cost.
– Left 13 counties who continued to maintain a high cost spatial data distribution
policy.
California
• California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) took one of the
counties to court after the county denied CFAC's request for the
county's parcel basemap data at the cost of copying.
• California Superior Court for Santa Clara County supported CFAC
and directed the county to provide the parcel basemap data to CFAC
charging only for the cost of duplication.
• In California there is now a legal precedent supporting the application
of the CPRA to spatial data.
• In California access to spatial "information concerning the conduct of
the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every
person in this state."
Canada
• All government data is covered by crown
copyright.
• As of April 1, 2007, spatial data from
NRCan, Federal, Provincial, Territorial
Governments available free.
www.geogratis.ca/geogratis/en/index.html
geobase.ca/geobase/en/index.html
Canada
GEOGRATIS LICENCE AGREEMENT FOR UNRESTRICTED USE OF DIGITAL
DATA
LICENCE GRANT
Subject to this Agreement, Canada hereby grants to the Licensee a non-exclusive, fully paid,
royalty-free right and licence to exercise all Intellectual Property Rights in the Data.
This includes the right to use, incorporate, sublicense (with further right of
sublicensing), modify, improve, further develop, and distribute the Data; and to
manufacture and / or distribute Derivative Products.
The Intellectual Property Rights arising from any modification, improvement, development
or translation of the Data, or from the manufacture of Derivative Products, effected by
or for the Licensee, shall vest in the Licensee or in such person as the Licensee shall
decide.
3.0 PROTECTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SOURCE
Use of the Data shall not be construed as an endorsement by Canada of any Derivative
Products. The Licensee shall identify the source of the Data, in the following manner,
where any of the Data are redistributed, or contained within Derivative Products:
"© Department of Natural Resources Canada. All rights reserved."
Japan
• Federal government data is available from
Geographical Survey Institute at nominal
charge.
• High quality data maintained by the
National Government.
• GSI budget is Y3B ($26M)/annum.
• Basic Law recently passed by the Japanese
Diet establishing principle that data should
be available to public at nominal cost.
EU
• Amendment proposed to the INSPIRE directive to require free data.
• Accepted by European Parliament
• Defeated by Council of Ministers
UK
• Until 1999 Ordnance Survey funded by the taxpayer.
• In 1999 Parliament made OS agency a government trading fund – expected to generate a return to the Govt of the UK.
• OS sells limited-use licences – expensive.
• Restrictive IP
Ordnance Survey is required by the Ordnance Survey Trading Fund Order 1999 to
recover all of the costs of collecting, maintaining and disseminating data to users,
together with funds for investments and to meet financial obligations to HM Treasury.
All Ordnance Survey material is subject to Crown Copyright. Ordnance Survey earns
revenue to meet its financial obligations by licensing Intellectual Property Rights in its
data, maps and information, under Crown Copyright (and Database right and trade
marks) through delegated authority from the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery
Office.
UK
• OS generates a return for the
government.– In most countries spatial data collection and
preparation is subsidized.
• MasterMap– Single standard used by all utilities, telcos, local
government in the UK.
– Arguably among the highest quality national
maps in the world.
UK
• Inhibits creation of free-to-access services, which is the internet business model
– My Society did a study to see if it would be quicker to take a car or a train to any location in the UK.
• It would be nice to be able to go to a free-access website to do this.
• Not possible without negotiating with the OS, because of restrictions on reuse of OS data.
Netherlands
• Data appears to be available for free.
• http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/
South Africa
• Prinviple is that National Government
digital spatial data is freely available.
Malaysia
• In order to buy maps from the national
mapping agency
– Complete an application,
– Application is reviewed by police and army.
– Buy the maps
• Sales to not cover cost to government of collecting
data and preparing maps.
– Report location of all maps annually to the
national mapping agency.
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, …
• Commercial IP
– Variety of licences
– Basic principle is that data is free for personal use
– Some allow limited commercial use.
• Must use data through Google API
– Direct access and download is not permitted.
• May require advertising.
• Data availability is dramatically impacting
national mapping agencies around the world.
Australia
• All Government data covered by
crown copyright.
• Variety of licences
• Makes it difficult to share data even
within government.
Queensland
• Open Content Licensing of Government
Information
– Creating a Spatial Information Creative
Commons
– Legal platform to support inter-jurisdictional
sharing of data.
• 80% of government information has a
geospatial dimension
Queensland
• Objective is to standardize a legal framework for
sharing information
• Manage govt IP, standardize information
licensing, improve access to information, and
reduce risk.
• Standard licensing based on standard set of terms,
– effective and legal,
– fit into the national and international recognized
environments
– attractive environment for private sector investment.
Queensland
• Queensland Government review that found that most
government agencies don't use licenses or use non-
standard licenses.
• Creates inter-jurisdictional problems.
• Easier to get what they need from the private sector
than from another government agency.
• Want a standard licensing scheme to open up access to
data held by other agencies.
• Major problems for online portals and for
interjurisdictional projects
• Serious impediments to innovation
Queensland
Intellectual Property (IP) Rights in Australia
• Copyright in Australia is different from copyright in the
US.
• Copyright is automatic in Australia.
• In US White Pages are not copyrightable, while in
Australia they are.
• In Australia there is the concept of Crown copyright,
which means that material originating from a government
employee in the normal course of his or her duties, is
automatically copyrighted by the government.
Queensland
• It is being recommended that
all government spatial data
would be available under
Creative Commons (CC)
licenses.
• CC represents a set of six
licenses that protect the IP
rights of data creators while
encouraging sharing and re-
use.
• Interoperable.
Queensland
• Queensland Government data would be released
with at least an attribution license, so that all
spatial data files will contain a a copyright
statement.
• Possible in Australia because copyright is
automatic and because government data is covered
by Crown copyright.
• Creative Commons licenses are widely used, and
both Google and Yahoo support searches for CC
licensed material.
Benefits of Open and Low Cost
Data
• Lowers barrier to entry for entrepreneurs
• Creates economic value– Contributes to a gespatial industry
– Some would argue that the reason so many major GIS industries
are based in the US is partially due to availability of spatial data,
e.g. TIGER.
– Google Earth/Maps is creating a new industry: Mashups
• Foundation for a national geospatial ecosystem– Low cost spatial data
– Open source geospatial software
– Internet
Open and Low Cost Data Creates
Business Opportunities
• Free data provides the basis for a spatial IT
ecosystem
• Prerequisites:
– Internet access
– Open source
– Low cost data
• Low cost of entry
– Low financial barrier for entrepreneurs
Some Open Data Web Sites
• geodata.osgeo.org and OSGeo Data Comm
• GeoCommons
• Malsingmaps.com
• OpenStreetMaps.org
• www.geogratis.ca/geogratis/en/index.html
• geobase.ca/geobase/en/index.html
• http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/
• http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/
• Freemap.in
Future• Creative Commons and OSI are working on new licenses for data
– Source code
– Media
– Data
• Spatial data will be much more prevalent
– At least 8 new satellites in 2007 alone
– Radarsat II, GeoEye, Digital Globe Worldview I, Theos,…
– More competitive
• GPS based Web 2.0 sites more prevalent
– Ex. Malsingmaps.com
• Predict greater availability
– Creative Commons like licenses
– Lower cost
• National Mapping Agencies redefine themselves or ?
Summary
• Within countries and worldwide, there are a variety of models for data access.
• Google and GPS are having a tremendous impact on data access.
• Trend is toward freely available spatial data with an open copyright
• Open source, open data creates opportunities
– Lower barrier to entry for entrepreneurs
– Foundation for a domestic geospatial IT ecosystem
Is Hell Freezing Over ?
Source: Tim Barker and Neale Hooper