Hello Chris and all
Le 19/10/13 21:33, Chris Mattmann a écrit :
Unfortunately doesn't seem to be compat with apache. What about
asking for them to license as ALv2 or some other Category A
compat license?
Do you know the DB's authors?
I know the chairman of OGP's Geodesy Subcommittee, the committee
responsible for the EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset. However I think
that it would be hard to get a license change. OGP (not to be confused
with OGC) is "International Association of Oil & Gas Producers" and
members are big companies like Shell. What we may get however is, maybe,
some statement that clarify how OGP see their conditions in the context
of Apache (I don't know enough about legal for seeing exactly what it
could be. Maybe something saying that OGP see no problems in Apache
bundling the EPSG database in SIS).
I would like to put some points for establishing the context:
* We are talking about data rather than software, so I don't know if
the same license classification apply...
* Oil & Gas producers maintain and provide the EPSG database free of
charge because the cost of installing a drilling platform in the
wrong location is too high. Since they rely on map and data produced
by various actors (national map agencies, etc.), it is in their best
interest that those actors had access to the most accurate CRS
definitions when they created their data.
* The EPSG database, or something equivalent, is absolutely crucial to
a Spatial Information System. Apache SIS without EPSG would probably
lost a lot of its interest. For example EPSG codes are the the-facto
standard for specifying CRS in most web services (WMS, etc.).
* I'm not aware of any freely available alternative to the EPSG
database, and it would be impossible for us to create one.
* OpenSouce and commercial products like Proj.4, PostGIS, GDAL,
MapServer, Geoserver, OpenStreetMap, ESRI, Oracle Spatial and many
other all include the EPSG database in derived forms. I think that
basically all major GIS products around the world include the EPSG
database in one form or the other.
Keeping the above in mind, my interpretation of EPSG conditions are:
1) If someone modify a "significant field" in the EPSG database (e.g.
the numerical value of a projection parameter), then OGP asks that the
modified database is not called "EPSG database" anymore. This seems a
very reasonable request to me, since the purpose is to protect the EPSG
credibility. Isn't Apache doing something similar? I mean, Apache
enforces trademark on its name. So if someone was forking an Apache
project and broke it badly, it seems to me that the Apache foundation
would not let the broken project calls itself "Apache Foo"...
2) Anyone can sell EPSG + SIS for profit. But EPSG conditions ask to not
extract the EPSG from SIS and sell only that part, without any added
value. I realize that this condition may be the most problematic one for
Apache, but I don't see why someone would download Apache SIS and
extract only the EPSG files, without keeping anything else (he could
download directly from the EPSG web site instead)... I have not hear
about anyone doing something like that with Proj.4 (MIT license) for
instance (but admittedly the Proj.4 files are extensively transformed
compared to the original EPSG files).
What do you think?
Martin
