I talk to a number of officers on various matters and my take is that Solihull Council, if they could ever get the manpower (half a footpath officer can't do much) they'd be more than happy to release their data - we tried doing stuff on TPO trees and the only restriction was technical ability (i.e. they new how to press the screen print button). I would assume (there I go again) that Councils would not be interested in retaining rights - they are fulfilling a legal obligation to compile the data; and with appropriate guidance from government, they'd quite happily release anything that needed releasing, and the obvious way to provide the data is via the OS.
Anyway, no point hassling Whitehall this week, but it seems that with a case for release that is in the public interest (and the validation of the definitive map seems a no brainer to me), then it could be done. However, I'd guess the real sticking point would be that this could undermine the mapping business. Ian Nick Whitelegg wrote on 11/05/2010 14:45: >> Apparently OS regards the PRoW data as containing IP belonging to the >> local authorities (who maintain the definitive maps), and so were >> unable to release them as part of OpenData. There is an agreement that >> allows OS to include PRoW data in their Explorer and Landranger Maps. >> > Sorry, meant to send it to the list. Damn my email client!!! > > Well that's weird because the authorities say that it's copyright OS! The > only reason the councils may not be able to release the data is because > it's based on the OS map - if the OS give the green light the whole > "proprietary" thing about footpath data falls apart. > > Nick > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-GB mailing list > Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb > > _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb