Most of US municipal, county level rules comes not from copyright law, per se. They derive from a lack of e-FOIA regulations/open records statutes that would force that level of government to make the digital form of their data completely accessible. Even if they have open or public records statutes, they are generally covered by making the paper versions of the data available (e.g., in the giant platt books).
(One thing that hasn't been ruled on, I think, is scraping government data off of an online GIS.) Rules also come from the legacy of cost recovery schemes. Many local governments were completely unprepared for the cost of coverting their data to shapefiles and then maintaining that data in digital form. They thought that GIS was all about purchasing hardware and software. As they began the costly exercise, who was the first to demand their products? Realtors and developers, who turned around and resold the data as part of their MLS applications. (Nothing against realtors and developers here.) The reaction of local governments? Purchase plans and restrictions. Then there was pushback from residents, students, and nonprofit organizations. The result of that? Licenses. Renee Landon Blake wrote: > Renee, > > This is an interesting post. If what you are saying is indeed true, I > wonder how my local county government can make me sign a horribly > restrictive license agreement to download a shapefile of the public > roads in the county. > > The name and location of a road sounds pretty similar to the names and > addresses in a telephone book. > > Landon > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of R E Sieber > Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 1:33 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Geowanking] Your data or theirs? > > US Copyright law protects creative works. For this situation you must > add creativity to the derivation. US Copyright law doesn't allow for the > > mere "sweat of the brow" or "industriousness" argument. For dbs, that > means you cannot claim copyright just because you spend oodles of time > or money collecting geospatial data. There has to be something creative > in the way you arrange it or display it. > > A collection of data by itself is not copyrightable. It's a mere > compilation and not a creative work. The basis for judicious decisions > on geospatial data comes from the US Supreme Court's case, /Feist > Publications versus Rural Telephone Service/. This was a breakthough > case that smashed the monopoly of telephone book companies. Basically, > the ruling was that "Rural's white pages are not entitled to copyright, > and therefore Feist's use of them does not constitute infringement." > That doesn't mean no dbs are copyrightable. If you can establish > creativity in the arrangement and selection the data then you could > copyright it. However, last name, first name, address and phone number > don't count. Overall, it's hard to make the case for ownership on data > alone. There has to be something more. > > Many of the rulings apply to output and not to dbs. It's easier to > copyright maps than it is to copyright the digital dbs that underlie > them. A lot of GIS related ownership issues are actually about maps. > What Google (really Quickbird or Digiglobe or whomever) are copyrighting > > is the maps. Not the pixels. > > How creative do you have to be to claim ownership? Much of our data > comes from somewhere else, for example, digitizing off of a paper map or > > scraping it off a website. You'd think that you'd have to create a > completely new work to claim copyright but you don't. Under US law, if > you add sufficient value to the derivation then you induce a transferral > > of ownership from the originator to yourself. (It makes me wonder if one > > creates an elaborate info window on Google Maps then could he/she lay > claim to the data underneath the geolocation? Probably.) It's unclear, > though, where that threshold for transferral is. > > Finally, ownership is not the same as copyright. If you want ownership > then you have to apply for a copyright. Probably what you mean is does > Google (or the remote sensing companes) own the map/data or can my > effort put it into the public domain? > > Ultimately, with copyright law, it's an issue of lawyering up. If an > entity wanted to contest your ownership, whether or not it has a case, > it can. > > BTW, the last word on copyright law (US, Canada and elsewhere) is > Michael Geist, at the U Ottawa. The last word on copyright law for > spatial data and output is Harlan Onsrud, at U Maine Orono. > > Renee > > Christopher Schmidt wrote: > >> On Fri, Nov 07, 2008 at 12:33:49PM -0800, Mano Marks wrote: >> >> >>> Some pertainent questions: >>> >>> What exactly are you creating? A KML file? Your own tiles? A list of >>> Lat/Long POIs? How was the list created? >>> >>> >From a Goog perspective: >>> >>> Say you create a KML file using Google Earth or use Google My Maps to >>> drop down points. Who owns that? You do. >>> >>> >> Mano, >> >> I posed some questions in >> http://www.edparsons.com/2008/10/who-map-is-it-anyway/#comments that >> went unanswered on exactly this topic. Specifically, "If I'm using >> satellite imagery from Google to create my data, who owns it?" You say >> if you're 'dropping down points' -- you do. But Ed says that only >> applies if you're dropping down points based on something that you >> already knew -- so you can't drop points at, for example, >> > intersections, > >> and say "It's mine". >> >> Additionally ,does the "dropping down points" extend to "dropping down >> lines"? What happens when those lines are traced from something >> > visible > >> in the satellite imagery? What happens when those lines are from >> something traced from the Street Maps? >> >> I can't imagine the statement from Google is anything so simple as "If >> you create a KML file using Google Maps data inside Google My Maps, >> > you > >> own the data." >> >> Regards, >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > > > Warning: > Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects > including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the > intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, > distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. 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