Hi All, Please have a look at David Eaves post on how Canada Post is prosecuting a person for crowdsourcing postal code data:
http://eaves.ca/2013/04/25/canada-post-and-the-war-on-open-data-innovation-common-sense-continued-sadly/ Best, Matt On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 7:37 AM, Adam Martin <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey all, > > I was reading over the previous discussions held here regarding the issue > of obtaining postal codes for use with civic addresses in Canada. I > understand that, unless specific permission is obtained, there is no way to > utilize the information stored in the Canada Post database, even if that > information is manually acquired from the database during a lookup. The use > is restricted to a very limited personal or business application - ie, I > want to send a package and I use the database to get the postal code of the > address. > > It initially appears odd that Canada Post would be very restrictive with > the code data. I understand that they maintain consumer names with the > address data, but the OSM project would not be seeking that connective > data, just the bare address to attach to a civic or business address. > Looking about their site, I eventually encountered this little gem ---> > https://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/business/productsservices/mailing/pcdp.jsf > > It would appear that Canada Post sells a data product that is, > effectively, the postal code data attached to a map. It is provided to > businesses for the purposes of datamining, allowing them to hone their > mailings or identify exploitable market areas. The cynic in me figures that > this is the real reason that they won't give OSM the permission to use the > data. Not for protection of the consumer or for privacy, but to make money. > Fair enough - it is technically a business. > > Anyway, it would appear that obtaining the information from Canada Post > is, basically, a dead end. Might I suggest an alternative? Why not a > volunteer effort? I can't look up a code and reproduce it on the map, but I > can surely put my own postal code and those of my previous addresses into > the map. That knowledge has nothing to do with looking it up on their > website. I also know the code for my small hometown in Newfoundland as I > lived there for years and the entire town uses the same code. Perhaps there > is a way to gather the information voluntarily from Canadian citizens and > businesses. Basically go around them? For example, a survey on the Reddit > forum for Canada could be asked or something like that. The more we can get > without using the post office, the better. Business websites are easily > some of the best sources - they offer their mail address without any > restriction so that is fair use too. > > Just a thought! > > Adam > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-ca mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ca > > -- | Matthew Dance, M.A. |Urban Geography & Planning | | 780.554.9222 | @mattdance | matthewdance.ca |
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