[GRASS5] Re: GNU Free Documentation License and maps

[Greg Sepesi]

> > Has there been any discussion of GRASS inserting an
> > FDL notice in the maps it creates?
> 
> No, 
> you can make proprietary maps with GRASS
> and this ability here to stay.
> 
> > With SVG maps (which I've been creating for testing code), map users
> > have the opportunity to edit/copy map data with a text editor.  Some
> > commercial map vendors avoid SVG because of this.  Could it be an
> > advantage of GRASS?
> 
> I don't quite understand what the advantage for GRASS would be
> in your question. Naturally Free Software data formats are never closed,
> but GRASS and other Free Software can read and manipulate many data formats.


My questions arose when working with SVG maps and seeing how easily they
could be modified.  Although my questions involve the SVG format, they
are about map data ownership rather than open formats.  (One can
copyright map data even though it is written in an open format.)

I think a source code copyright is typically viewed by the open source
community as a seal of stagnation that discourages contributors from
applying their particular interests and expertise to the task of
maintaining/improving the code.  It seems to me that avoiding copyrights
could also lead to improved map data.  So it is surprising to me to see
so much discussion of source code copyrights and so little discussion of
map data copyrights.

Greg