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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Frank et al. –</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>It is dangerous to speculate without good
legal advice and specific precedents. Having been a CTO for several
companies and involved in several IP issues (as a techie, not a lawyer), I will
say that outside of patent protection the way most companies protect their
intellectual property is through copyright and trade secrets. If the
secret is disclosed, SOMEONE made a boo-boo.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I’ve never bothered with the format,
but your BSB page describes a patented algorithm that has been “reverse
engineered”. It’s usually not necessary to reverse-engineer a
patented process, because the patent itself explains it. But if it’s
patented, you can’t use it without a license from the patent holder –
as in the Unisys LZW patent, for example. Everyone knows how to implement
it, but you need a license to do so legally.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>EFF might be a good start, but a good
legal opinion from someone is needed here. Applying “similar”
cases is often very unhelpful and misleading – the EXACT nature of the
copyrighted materials, the specific claims (all of them) in the patent, etc.
are all relevant to whether MapTech’s claim has merit. That’s
very hard for a non-professional to determine, although it’s VERY easy
for a non-professional to engage in exuberant speculation <g>.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.75in;text-indent:-.25in'><font size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Ed</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Ed McNierney</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>President and Chief Mapmaker</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>73 Princeton Street, Suite 305</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>North Chelmsford, MA 01863</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Phone: (978) 251-4242 Fax: (978)
251-1396</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>ed@topozone.com</span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>-----Original
Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b> Jack Varga
[mailto:jvarga@boulder.net] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, September 10,
2003 7:38 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> gdal-dev@remotesensing.org<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [Gdal-dev] MapTech /
BSB Legal Issues</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>EFF is the place to pose
this excellent question. My belief is their request is without
merit. A friend and 3rd year law student specializing in IP concurs but
is digging further. Curious though, was it truly a "request" or
an order for cease and desist? If it was the former, chances are their
attorney's have already told them to ask nicely as there was not much recourse
otherwise. <br>
<br>
I would simply take your original mail (include a reference to <a
href="http://www.maptech.com">http://www.maptech.com</a>) and forward to one of
the following...<br>
<br>
Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney<br>
<a href="mailto:fred@eff.org?SUBJECT=">fred@eff.org</a><br>
<br>
Wendy Seltzer, EFF Staff Attorney (Fair Use & Intellectual Property)<br>
<a href="mailto:wendy@eff.org">wendy@eff.org</a><br>
<br>
Jason M. Schultz, EFF Staff Attorney (Intellectual Property / reverse
engineering)<br>
<a href="mailto:jason@eff.org">jason@eff.org</a><br>
<br>
...or...<br>
<br>
<a href="mailto:ask@eff.org">ask@eff.org</a><br>
<br>
...to let them decide who to forward it to.<br>
<br>
The entire staff's bio's are at <a
href="http://www.eff.org/contact/staff_bios.php">http://www.eff.org/contact/staff_bios.php</a><br>
<br>
Relatedly, one of the counties here sells certain data (parcels and address
enhanced street center lines) for $.50 (US) per arc, exported to
shapefile. They say that purchasers are constrained legally to
"not" make the data available to other parties, including web
applications. However, the information contained within those shapefiles
(i.e., coordinate info) is essentially public domain. You can't copyright
coordinate info, so how do the likes of GDT, NavTech, etc., keep their data
proprietary and protected, yet useful? <br>
<br>
Has anyone run across similar scenarios?<br>
<br>
-jv<br>
<br>
Frank Warmerdam wrote:<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:
.5in'><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>GDAL Users, <br>
<br>
I have been contacted by Maptech and I have been requested to remove the <br>
web page where I talk about the BSB file format, and provide source code for <br>
reading it. <br>
<br>
<a href="http://gdal.velocet.ca/projects/bsb/">http://gdal.velocet.ca/projects/bsb/</a>
<br>
<br>
They seem to be claiming that the BSB file format is copyrighted by them, <br>
though it wasn't my understanding that a file format could be copyrighted. <br>
I am not prepared to comply with their request until they can provide some <br>
sort of supporting information indicating they truely have
"ownership" of <br>
the file format and that it is illegal for applications to support reading <br>
that file format for the purposes of interoperability. <br>
<br>
Maptech has not requested that anyone stop using the code I distribute; <br>
however, any firms interested in minimizing any possible downstream legal <br>
concerns may want to proactively drop use of the BSB driver from their <br>
GDAL builds. <br>
<br>
To that end, I have added a "--without-bsb" configure option on
Unix. Just <br>
add this option when configuring GDAL and no BSB related code will be <br>
included in your builds. On Windows I added a line to the nmake.opt <br>
file related to BSB support. If the nmake.opt file does not declare <br>
the BSB_SUPPORTED macro then BSB support and source code will be omitted <br>
from the build. The changes went in this afternoon and should appear <br>
in tonights nightly snapshot. <br>
<br>
For those who are not aware, the BSB format is a compressed raster format <br>
used for distributing government nautical charts from a number of countries <br>
including Canada and the USA. <br>
<br>
While for me the BSB format is if no great importance, it is important to <br>
me to be able to write my own code to read file formats. For that reason <br>
I don't want to immediately cave in till I get some more information on <br>
whether their claims have any validity. <br>
<br>
I am interested in any pointers folks can provide on precidents related <br>
to copyrighting file formats, or suggestions of an inexpensive <br>
intellectual property attorney. Even a student lawyer would
help! I <br>
don't want to break the law, but I don't want to be give up if I am not. <br>
<br>
Best regards, </span></font></p>
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