[Geotools-devel] IP Review of epsg-wkt

[Frank Warmerdam]

Jody Garnett wrote:
> Well I am module maintainer on this one,
> 
> And I suppose I need to answer the same distribution and redistribution 
> questions as Martin does with the epsg-hsql plugin. I belive my 
> situation is slight different as the the original source was PostGIS and 
> some hacking by Paul Ramsey with perl. Further customizations to cover 
> for the initial shortcommings of the geotools codebase probably make 
> this a distinct data product.
> 
> Paul Ramsey do you care to advise? Under what arrangement does PostGIS 
> distribute this information and can GeoTools lurk under the same 
> arrangement?

Jody,

The data is originally derived from the EPSG database which has the following
statement on the "use of data".

1) All data pertinent to a specific coordinate reference system must be copied 
without modification and all related pages/records must be included;
2) All components of this data set pertinent to any given coordinate reference 
system must be distributed together (complete distribution of all components 
of the data set is preferred, but the OGP  recognises the need for a more 
limited distribution);
3) The data may not be distributed for profit by any third party; and
4) The original source [OGP] must be acknowledged.
The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this data. 
The data may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions:
INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF 
ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE 
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 With regard to (3) above, the data may be included within proprietary 
applications distributed on a commercial basis when the commerciality is based 
on application functionality and not on a value ascribed to the 
freely-distributed EPSG dataset.

As I see it, several of these points are contrary to the Open Source
Definition, which suggests that EPSG derived datasets should not be
distributed as part of an open source package *if* they are considered
source code.  However, it is common for open source packages to distribute
documentation under licenses that disallow changes for instance.  I'm not
sure what the implications are for us.  I will follow up with Rich Steele.

Also there is some question whether we are in violation of (1) and (2) by
not distributing everything known about coordinate systems. For instance,
"remarks" are discarded in the translation to WKT and PROJ.4 format.

Lastly, we do need to properly acknowledge OGP as the source of the data
in source and binary distributions.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org