[Imports] Fargo Stop Signs

[Paul Norman]

> From: Richard Weait [mailto:richard at weait.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 5:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [Imports] Fargo Stop Signs
> 
> > All of the data is public domain,
> 
> I'm glad that they want the data to propagate but I expect that it is
> not actually public domain.  As I understand it, works only fall into
> the public domain once copyright expires.  The noteworthy exception is
> for a class of US Federal government works[1], which doesn't apply here
> unless City of Fargo is not a federal gov't agency?
> 
> This misunderstanding of (Federal) (government) copyright is pervasive.

On the other hand, we've generally taken a clear statement of the copyright
status of a work from a government publishing GIS data as being sufficient
to determine its status. The copyright status of geodata can be complicated
and if a government believes what it is publishing is not protected by
copyright (e.g. by being public domain or being facts that do not attract
copyright protection) they are the people best placed to determine this. If
they're of this belief they'll likely refuse to license it under CC0 or an
equivalent license (e.g. PDDL) because they don't believe there's anything
for them to license.

Similarly, I don't normally ask about database rights locally because they
don't exist except in certain foreign jurisdictions and asking a local
government to license rights that from their view don't exist would be an
exercise in frustration.