Licensing Geographic Data and Services (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-18
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enhancing government institutions that coordinate acquisitions; and (6) investigating options for building a National Commons and Marketplace in Geographic _____________ 1License or licensing of geographic data or a geographic work means a transaction or arrangement (usually a contract, in which there is an exchange of value)
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The fundamental issue addressed by this report, therefore, is under what circumstances and to what extent should agencies accept limitations on the further distribution or use of geographic data they acquire from private and other governmental vendors. The number of uses of geographic data has expanded rapidly with the evolution of geographic information systems that manage geographic _____________ 2Geographic information commons means a system for making geographic data and works openly and freely accessible to the public over the Internet.
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Licensing has become commonplace because of · the realization that many geographic data, as opposed to geographic creative works, are difficult to protect through copyright alone; · a shift away from supplying distinct datasets to providing access to databases; · the rise of business models that stress multiple subscribers despite the reality of digital networks and media that allow others to distribute perfect and inexpensive copies; · increased concern over potential liability and a desire to limit liability through explicit license language; and · the rise of shared cost and data maintenance partnerships. Expanded mapping activities have increased the potential for duplication of data gathering and processing.
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to explore the experiences of federal, state, and local government agencies in licensing geographic data and services from and to the private sector using case studies such as the Landsat program; 2. to examine ways in which licensing of geographic data and services between government and the private sector serve agency missions and the interests of other stakeholders in government datasets; 3.
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The use of licenses to provide data to users may, however, be useful to enforce proper attribution, minimize liability, enhance data security, and formalize collaboration. WAYS IN WHICH LICENSING SERVES AGENCY MISSIONS AND THE INTERESTS OF STAKEHOLDERS IN GOVERNMENT DATA Agency mandates and missions can be broadly grouped into those requiring broad, limited, or internal data redistribution; those requiring distribution of derivative products; and those ensuring adequate citizen access and judicial review.
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in many instances, making data immediately available, enabling faster build times for operational information systems, structuring data release after a given embargo period, supporting specific agency projects as opposed to ongoing operations or decision-making functions, updating or correcting existing government databases, supporting national security uses, allocating risk, ensuring proper attribution,
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Nonetheless, licenses continue to evolve rapidly and are likely to improve over time. Suggestions from the commercial sector for promoting licenses include better contract design, validating licensed data to increase user confidence, developing standard form licenses, and simplifying negotiations.
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In general, licenses for data obtained from the private sector that contain modest use and redistribution rights promote markets by allowing the original suppliers to pursue additional sales. Conversely, the agency may think that certain geographic data products have proven their worth, but that high prices are preventing many people from using them.
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Such data also serve government accountability and transparency, although some license restrictions also may support these public interests in some cases. National security, law enforcement, and privacy issues present a common challenge to policy makers considering geographic data access issues: how to weigh potentially harmful or intrusive uses against legitimate uses.
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Recommendation 3: When geographic data are to be used to design or administer regulatory schemes or formulate policy, affect the rights and obligations of citizens, or have likely value for the broader society as indicated by a legislative or regulatory mandate, the agency should Federal Geographic Data Committee, 1998, Data Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, available at |
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Agencies should avoid _____________ 20See Chapter 8, Section 8.3.2.3. 21Uplift rights in a license allow future purchases by specified parties under specified terms and conditions without the need to negotiate a new license.
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charge the lowest price consistent with covering their variable costs (if the goal is to finance ongoing operations while still providing affordable public access)
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Recommendation 6: Agencies should dedicate resources to training and knowledge-sharing among agencies in order to extract maximum public benefit from licensing. The Federal Geographic Data Committee's working group and subcommittee structure provides a convenient venue through which agencies can report and learn from their experiences.26 POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON GEOGRAPHIC DATA USES AND GEOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS OF COMPETING LICENSE/NON-LICENSE APPROACHES WITHIN THE COMMERCIAL SECTOR An earlier section of this summary27 presented the contrasting interests of various groups in licensing and some of their concerns about effects of license and nonlicense approaches on geographic data use and technology.
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Likely benefits include reduced negotiation costs, reduced uncertainty, improved market efficiency, and greater ability to automate transactions. Recommendation 7: Agencies, trade associations, and public interest groups should exercise leadership in promoting standard clauses and form licenses throughout the geographic data community.28 Coordinating Government Acquisitions Agencies often develop interagency approaches to prevent duplicate procurement of data.
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geographic data and products at local scales similar in effect to the public domain datasets and works created by federal agencies. To succeed, the commons could provide easy, effective, and integrated mechanisms that · enable any geographic dataset creator to construct a license that grants others permission to use his or her data, · enable novice creators to quickly generate accurate and substan tive standardized metadata for a geographic data file, · enable data contributors to take advantage of form liability disclaimers, · embed identifiers automatically in any commons dataset so that future users can link back to and recover detailed metadata and license conditions, · allow for deeper search capabilities of geographic data and metadata than are currently available, and · provide a long-term archive for commons geographic datasets.
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Participation would be voluntary.33 The Marketplace The Internet has greatly enhanced the ability of commercial businesses, government, nonprofit organizations, and citizens to find comercial geographic data meeting their needs. A National Marketplace in Geographic Information would provide an online environment where any seller or licensor, no matter how small, could efficiently post its offerings in a searchable form using a menu of standard licenses and metadata reporting.
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Participation would be voluntary.34 Encouraging Data Donations to the National Commons and Marketplace A potential add-on to the basic commons and marketplace facility is a "timed donation strategy." To encourage donations, the following rule might be adopted: Creators who post a data file for sale over the "marketplace component" must at the same time deposit a copy of the data file in escrow to the secured archives of the National Commons and Marketplace. Escrowed files become available after five years through a commons license selected by the creator at the time of deposit or, if no commons license is generated, enter the public domain.35 This strategy is a natural extension to current USGS policies that use licensing to draw data into the public domain.36 The benefits of such a strategy include (1)
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Whatever the chosen path, strong agency leadership will be needed to ensure that maximum benefits are achieved. Recommendation 12: Federal agencies should investigate options for and encourage development of a National Commons and Marketplace in Geographic Information.38 _____________ 38See Chapter 9, Section 9.5.
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