[Freegis-list] Geographic/spatial data policies

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 07:20:58PM -0800, Brent Wood wrote:
> While this list is primarily interested in Open Source Software, in some areas
> gov't funded data is the subject of a similar debate, regarding costs &
> distribution. 

The FreeGIS Project is also about free data, so this is a topic for this list.
From the mission statement http://www.freegis.org/about.en.html

	The FreeGIS Project aims to promote the freedom in the scope
	of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

	It seeks to reach its aim through

    	* promoting the use and release of publicly available geographic
    	data in the same sense of freedom as for Free Software,

There is a section for "data" on the website for a reason. ;)

> Like my feelings on software, I believe the value of such data is
> in how widely it can be used, rather than how much money can be made from it,
> especially when the taxpayer funded the data collection in the first place.
> 
> When it comes to OS GIS software, without good data, the software is of limited
> use.
> 
> Anyway, a new book has been released which may be of interest. It discusses a
> range of issues & approaches:

> Licensing Geographic Data & Services
> by the National Research Council 
> 
> ISBN 0-309-09267-1 (book)
> ISBN 0-309-54457-2 (PDF)
> 
> or read/skim online at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11079.html

Did you read it? Can you recommend it?
The summary sounds like it might recommend to make money from licences 
and that it is US centric.

Regards,
	Bernhard
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