[Talk-us] NGS/CORS offline
Just received the notification today that the NGS/CORS base stations have been taken offline as part of the government shutdown. If you are collecting any data with GPS, you will be unable to differentially collect via the NGS/CORS networks. This includes the DOT base station networks in most states as well as any federally operated stations. Contact the GPS vendor for assistance on using an alternative network, if available in your state. If you are making any plans to use differential GPS for the fall editathon, be aware that you will need an alternate network if the federal government is still shut down. *Brett Lord-Castillo* *GIS Programmer St Louis County Emergency Management* ___ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
Re: [Talk-us] Baltimore County GIS Data is now public domain
Conclusion: explicit law may already give us permission to use (our) data any way we see fit, simply by asking for them. Read up on your state's laws on Public Records, see if there are any court decisions affirming, and armed with this knowledge, ask away. Happy mapping! Good point. RCFP just published a guide to open government records law for all 50 states, which you can find here here: http://t.co/bBEWW1H2FGhttp://tinyurl.com/m6leum5 The guide is simply the text of state legislation, so you won't find anything in the way of interpretation or application. For that you'd better look closer to home. In Virginia we have a public records law that places most public records in the public domain, but interestingly (or frustratingly) every jurisdiction in the state asserts copyright over the data. Here is the text of that copyright: Information shown on these maps is derived from public records that are constantly undergoing change and do not replace a site survey, and is not warranted for content or accuracy. The County does not guarantee the positional or thematic accuracy of the GIS data. The GIS data or cartographic digital files are not a legal representation of any of the features in which it depicts, and disclaims any assumption of the legal status of which it represents. Data contained on this Web page/site is Copyright © York County, Virginia. The GIS data are proprietary to the County, and title to this information remains in the County. All applicable common law and statutory rights in the GIS data including,but not limited to, rights in copyright, shall and will remain the property of the County. My take is that this language was crafted in the early days of paleo-GIS and was intended as a CYA by local governments who feared getting sued for inaccurate data. I'm not sure of the implications for importing into OpenStreetMap. Insights welcome. OK, Steven, here are my insights. Again, I am not an attorney, just a reasonably informed Citizen, and I most certainly do not know everything in this realm. It would seem Virginia has a situation similar to California's a few years ago, BEFORE California Supreme Court's 2009 decision: one where statutory law (California Public Records Act, part of California's Government Code) conflicted with a copyright/Terms of Use by a public entity (Santa Clara County). The California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) requested geographic data from the County of Santa Clara free of the County's onerous copyright and/or Terms of Use (asserting it under CPRA law, as enacted), the County refused, so CFAF sued, demanding as its remedy access to the data unfettered by copyright or other restrictions. Long story short, it went all the way to the California Supreme Court, and CFAF won. The best part about this is that open access to public records isn't just enacted law, it is enacted law AFFIRMED BY HIGH COURT, about as good as it gets when such or similar questions arise in the future. What you (or somebody else, preferably with deep legal pockets!) might do is something similar: explicitly reject the copyright as a direct conflict of statutory law. It appears you have to understand what Virginia's law says, be prepared to challenge the jurisdiction's actions (assertion of copyright) as illegal and be convinced court(s) will see it your way. I think. Or at least, be prepared for that to happen: that's what happened here. A similar, recent (July 2013) case between the Sierra Club and Orange County can be read about at http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/08/local/la-me-adv-map-ruling-20130709 where again, the court ruled that the County must provide the GIS data without licensing or restrictions on distribution. Once the data are cleanly yours, THEN there are good questions to ask whether the data might or should find their way into OSM. That is an entirely different thread! (One which has been addressed many times and in many ways regarding imports). I hope this helps, SteveA California___ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
Re: [Talk-us] Baltimore County GIS Data is now public domain
Maryland has a pretty broad public data law as well. I have not read it entirely, but it does appear this kind of release would be covered. I spoke with my program manager on the matter, and he is taking a *wait and see* approach to the license situation. Baltimore County wants to protect itself from liability. It is no longer interested in any direct economic benefits of providing (selling) the data, but rather the wider scale benefits. If the county gets requests about the license or copyright like have been raised, he can take it to our law office and get a decision. Therefore I encourage the community to send inquiries about the nature of the ownership to my program manager and cc me. That will help me convince the department that taking a firm stance on the license is important to the community. Send inquiries to g...@baltimorecountymd.gov and cc me epl...@baltimorecountymd.gov Thanks again, Elliott PS: I thank Serge and the Imports US group for having me on the hangout. On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 2:03 PM, stevea stevea...@softworkers.com wrote: ** Conclusion: explicit law may already give us permission to use (our) data any way we see fit, simply by asking for them. Read up on your state's laws on Public Records, see if there are any court decisions affirming, and armed with this knowledge, ask away. Happy mapping! Good point. RCFP just published a guide to open government records law for all 50 states, which you can find here here: http://tinyurl.com/m6leum5http://t.co/bBEWW1H2FGThe guide is simply the text of state legislation, so you won't find anything in the way of interpretation or application. For that you'd better look closer to home. In Virginia we have a public records law that places most public records in the public domain, but interestingly (or frustratingly) every jurisdiction in the state asserts copyright over the data. Here is the text of that copyright: *Information shown on these maps is derived from public records that are constantly undergoing change and do not replace a site survey, and is not warranted for content or accuracy.** * The County does not guarantee the positional or thematic accuracy of the GIS data. The GIS data or cartographic digital files are not a legal representation of any of the features in which it depicts, and disclaims any assumption of the legal status of which it represents. Data contained on this Web page/site is Copyright © York County, Virginia. The GIS data are proprietary to the County, and title to this information remains in the County. All applicable common law and statutory rights in the GIS data including,but not limited to, rights in copyright, shall and will remain the property of the County. My take is that this language was crafted in the early days of paleo-GIS and was intended as a CYA by local governments who feared getting sued for inaccurate data. I'm not sure of the implications for importing into OpenStreetMap. Insights welcome. OK, Steven, here are my insights. Again, I am not an attorney, just a reasonably informed Citizen, and I most certainly do not know everything in this realm. It would seem Virginia has a situation similar to California's a few years ago, BEFORE California Supreme Court's 2009 decision: one where statutory law (California Public Records Act, part of California's Government Code) conflicted with a copyright/Terms of Use by a public entity (Santa Clara County). The California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) requested geographic data from the County of Santa Clara free of the County's onerous copyright and/or Terms of Use (asserting it under CPRA law, as enacted), the County refused, so CFAF sued, demanding as its remedy access to the data unfettered by copyright or other restrictions. Long story short, it went all the way to the California Supreme Court, and CFAF won. The best part about this is that open access to public records isn't just enacted law, it is enacted law AFFIRMED BY HIGH COURT, about as good as it gets when such or similar questions arise in the future. What you (or somebody else, preferably with deep legal pockets!) might do is something similar: explicitly reject the copyright as a direct conflict of statutory law. It appears you have to understand what Virginia's law says, be prepared to challenge the jurisdiction's actions (assertion of copyright) as illegal and be convinced court(s) will see it your way. I think. Or at least, be prepared for that to happen: that's what happened here. A similar, recent (July 2013) case between the Sierra Club and Orange County can be read about at http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/08/local/la-me-adv-map-ruling-20 130709 where again, the court ruled that the County must provide the GIS data without licensing or restrictions on distribution. Once the data are cleanly yours, THEN there are good questions to ask whether the data might or should find their way into
[Talk-us] Whole-US Garmin Map update - 2013-09-30
These are based off of Lambertus's work here: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl If you have questions or comments about these maps, please feel free to ask. However, please do not send me private mail. The odds are, someone else will have the same questions, and by asking on the talk-us@ list, others can benefit. Downloads: http://daveh.dev.openstreetmap.org/garmin/Lambertus/2013-09-30 Map to visualize what each file contains: http://daveh.dev.openstreetmap.org/garmin/Lambertus/2013-09-30/kml/kml.html FAQ Why did you do this? I wrote scripts to joined them myself to lessen the impact of doing a large join on Lambertus's server. I've also cut them in large longitude swaths that should fit conveniently on removable media. http://daveh.dev.openstreetmap.org/garmin/Lambertus/2013-09-30 Can or should I seed the torrents? Yes!! If you use the .torrent files, please seed. That web server is in the UK, and it helps to have some peers on this side of the Atlantic. Why is my map missing small rectangular areas? There have been some missing tiles from Lambertus's map (the red rectangles), I don't see any at the moment, so you may want to update if you had issues with the last set. Why can I not copy the large files to my new SD card? If you buy a new card (especially SDHC), some are FAT16 from the factory. I had to reformat it to let me create a 2GB file. Does your map cover Mexico/Canada? Yes!! I have, for the purposes of this map, annexed Ontario in to the USA. Some areas of North America that are close to the US also just happen to get pulled in to these maps. This might not happen forever, and if you would like your non-US area to get included, let me know. -- Dave ___ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
