Bill,
I agree with everything you say. I think it would be great, too. However,
I would bet MapInfo does NOT allow anyone to view the data free. My point
was really to point out how tough MapInfo's data agreement is.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Thoen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 'MapInfo-L' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Friday, March 12, 1999 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: MI MapInfo Free Viewer - Issues
>Dan Munson wrote:
>
>> Is there any real proof MapInfo plans this? Also there are BIG
>> issues.
>
>Of course not, it's just a rumor in an online trade magazine that
>tends be more right than wrong and always way ahead of everyone
>else on the GIS news front... But a free data viewer is a nice
>idea, and makes sense. MapInfo has also just finished a 100% java
>release of MapXtreme, so the talent is there to do it. But just
>because it's a good idea doesn't mean it's going to happen.
>
>> First of all, if you're buying data from MapInfo, their license
>> agreement is
>> extremely strict!
>
>I think a viewer's great value would be for people to use it with
>their own data and public domain sources. Vendors could use to
>demo their data too. There's no shortage of free data out there
>either. The best value-added stuff is generally commercial and
>licesned, of course, but the free stuff isn't useless. Far from
>it. When people make their first maps analyzing a market with
>1995 Census data (free from the Census bureau or ESRI's web
>page), they will get the idea, and those data vendors savvy
>enough to know these people will quickly want more and better
>data will have already posted free data sets on their web pages
>in hopes that they will get the call when somebody wants
>market-focused data instead of generic census block groups.
>
>> You would be breaking the license agreement if:
>>
>> 1. You shared any data or DERIVATIVE works with anyone. (You
>> license data
>> by the number of users - the viewer may be free, but the data
>> can not be
>> distributed free!)
>
>Ever since the Feist decision (Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural
>Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991)), this has been in doubt when
>it comes to map data. (not a lot of doubt, but there may still be
>some surprises waiting for map data vendors) In this case, the US
>supreme court actually went out of their way to point out that
>even if you spent a lot of money gathering data, if the
>representaion of that effort was essentially a compilation of
>facts (and map data, satellite imagery, etc. might be argued that
>way), you might not have any copyright protection for that
>effort. Congress has tried for several years to get something
>passed to protect data vendors who build data from what might
>possibly be seen as a "collections of facts", but they haven't
>succeeded yet.
>
>Depending on how courts see this when it comes to map data
>issues, there may be some interesting times coming! But I'm not
>going to sweat it. I don't plan to test that decision by giving
>away any data that has a license claim on it, because 1.) I don't
>need trouble, and 2.) I don't need it. I could fairly quickly put
>together a generic world wide data set from free sources and give
>it to people I wanted to support.
>
>In any case, I'd be very surprised if MapInfo produced a free
>data viewer and didn't let you use it with ANY of their data.
>(People could just download data from ESRI anyway.)
>
>- Bill Thoen
>
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