[PROJ] NOAA VDatum Tidal Grids and PROJ CDN

[Greg Troxel]

Martin Desruisseaux <martin.desruisseaux at geomatys.com> writes:

> I see two aspects in the EPSG/ISO license:
>
>  * A restriction on commercial use.
>  * A restriction on modifications.
>
> I agree that the restriction on commercial use is problematic. But the
> restriction on modifications is more debatable, as there is legitimate
> reasons to want to protect data or standard integrity. Greg gave a
> good example of case where ability to make modifications is desirable,
> but on the other hand there is also historical examples of damages
> caused by standards changed at project's will. The concept of "Open
> standard" is debated at a larger scale than us, and may be something
> open source projects should adapt to:
>
>    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard

But the EPSG database is not a standard in that sense.  A standard
describes a protocol, more or less.  The EPSG database is a set of
information.

> We may argue that the current reality is that EPSG license does not
> fit well in MIT-licensed project. But for making progress we need to
> not only express our point of view, but also understand their concerns
> and see how we could address them.

Their concerns are real and legitimate.   Currently I see the major
issue being the conflict between

  Transforms are added based on stated accuracy from external sources,
  and there is no notion that these errors are consistent.  Therefore it
  is a mistake to compare two errors from the EPSG dataset, or to add
  them.

  proj uses the database as if the errors can be compared and added.
  Mostly this works.


Perhaps proj should just maintain a lookaside database that is basically
a patch file, consulted at runtime, to use different errors when we find
that the EPSG ones don't work well for how proj uses the database.  That
doesn't resolve the Free Software concerns, but it does help the
practical problem.
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