[Geodata] Re: [Aust-NZ] NZ geodata on OSGEO?

[jo at frot.org]

dear Hamish, all,
On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 08:54:51PM -0700, Hamish wrote:
> I don't really see the need to add any of our own license terms, but if...
>   http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
> 
> The advantage of redistributing with a known & trusted license is that
> 3rd parties are much more likely to touch it and have the confidence to
> build upon it.

FWIW: :/
Science Commons (the CC data spinoff) are specifically recommending
that the copyright-based CC licenses *should not* be used for data, now.
http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/
http://www.opendatacommons.org/odc-public-domain-dedication-and-licence/
OpenStreetmap have had a bunch of issues with that CC license and are 
planning a move away from it:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Open_Data_License

> As for prior goings- we have, with permission, distrubuted LINZ's NZGD49
> distortion grid with both PROJ.4 and GRASS GIS for a number of years. In
> that case the terms were not quite as clear at the outset and a
> clarification letter was sought.
> see  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gis.grass.devel/1492/

The "clarification letter" obtained from Merano that Markus posted,
asking for attribution with any reuse, looks like good assurance:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/images/5/5b/R3GIS-DVD.pdf
As you point out, more constraints aren't desired or needed. 
This is essentially what you already got from LINZ, which is just
great - a blessing that the data can be redistributed under
"BSD-style" terms. Having jumped into the discussion halfway through,
i didn't realise this - sorry. 

> But again, in our current case I don't see any ambiguity so don't see why
> we can't just proceed with confidence.
> > We need to be realistic as to what can and can't be achieved here.
> > Don't expect an overnight change in policy.

I agree that there is  enough clarity about the LINZ data to get on
with the work and send the providers a helpful note letting them know
what has been done and offering such mirror arrangements into the future.

It makes sense to me to run a bittorrent tracker for it and publish
that via geotorrents.org as well. 
(This was a project i worked on a bit last year to distribute tiles of
gridded data, landcoverage in this case, in smaller torrents
http://ionia1.esrin.esa.int/index.asp)

> In this case, we don't need any change of policy. They're already a step
> ahead of us! :)

So if they are already sympathetic and pro- free and open
redistribution, they would be a good candidate for setting a
positive example for other agencies by being explicit and progressive
in licensing and potentially offering a contact point :)

> meaning to promote here wrt incorporation: The Software Freedom Law
> Center's "A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software
> Projects", March 2008.
>   http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.html

Thanks for this, it looks like a reference point for free software
projects that OSGeo should be helping promote...