[Talk-us] Obtaining local govt GIS data (was: King County, Washington authorization)

[Steven Johnson]

On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 4:36 PM, Serge Wroclawski <emacsen at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sweet.
>
> I wish more local governments took this approach.
>
>
>
I agree. I'm looking at several local governments in Virginia (including
Arlington). Nearly all of them have some boilerplate language such as this,
from Lynchburg:

"Data contained on this Web page/site is Copyright © City of Lynchburg,
Virginia. The GIS data are proprietary to the City, and title to this
information remains in the City. 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 City."

A quick scan of Virginia public records law suggest that local GIS data are
considered public records and therefore in the public domain. And I
understand the copyright claims are there to limit commercial marketing of
the data that might undermine the local govt. But it's beyond me how they
can claim the data are a) proprietary, and b) what downstream restrictions
the copyright places on the data.

Interested to hear what experiences other mappers have had in other parts
of the country.

-- SEJ
-- twitter: @geomantic
-- skype: sejohnson8

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." --
Einstein
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