For reference, http://www.fgdc.gov/library/factsheets/documents/datashare.pdf There are exceptions, but from what I have seen this policy seems to be the basis of the government opening up GIS data.
Dale On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 3:02 PM, Dale Puch <[email protected]> wrote: > It will probably take some digging to find out the full story, and it will > probably differ from state to state. But it seems that around 1995-2005 > time range federal, state and local governments started to share GIS data. > As they did this they also changed their copyright and access policies due > to the sharing. > > To make matters worse, very few clearly state any copyright or > restrictions, even though there is a specific field in the meta-data. > > While I do not know for sure, my guess is that the original map was indeed > copyrighted, but at a later date the map, or data was shared with other > agencies and the result was no longer copyrighted. > > It would be really nice to have the copyright/usability status of various > data sets published by the various agencies. > > Dale > > > On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 7:18 AM, Nathan Edgars II <[email protected]>wrote: > >> First, I'm not trying to start an argument or even a civilized >> discussion about our policies in this matter. I just found this >> interesting. >> >> http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:1196597 >> is "Rosslyn Station", a former railway station in Pennsylvania. The >> source cited for the feature is a map created by the Pennsylvania >> Department of Transportation: >> >> ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf/BPR_PDF_FILES/Maps/Type_10_GHS_Historical_Scans/Allegheny_1976_Sheet_1.pdf >> This map, from which USGS got the name and location, is labeled >> "Copyright 1977 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania". (Yes, our GNIS import >> includes this feature.) The USGS doesn't seem to consider this >> information copyrightable: >> http://www.usgs.gov/usgs-manual/1100/1100-6.html prescribes a notice >> to appear "when copyrighted materials are used in an information >> product", which I don't see with the GNIS, and >> http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/metadata.htm#getacopy.0 says that >> there are no access or use constraints. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Talk-us mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us >> > -- Dale Puch
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