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

www.osgeo.org

geoff.zeiss@autodesk.com

geospatial.blogs.com