[Tilecache] Intellectual property question [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 03:56:48PM +1000, Ross.Wilson at ga.gov.au wrote:
> Listers,
> 
> I've had a wander through the archive, but can't seem to find anything on the IP situation with regard to the *tiles* served by the MetaCarta server (labs.metacarta.com/wms/vmap0).
> 
> I know that OpenLayers and TileCache are released under the BSD licence, but are the tiles served covered by the same licence?  If not, what are the terms of use?

Those tiles are based on the 'vmap0' dataset. MetaCarta places no
additional restrictions on the tiles, which means that they are
typically considered public domain. 

Note that there are claims by ESRI that some of vmap0 which is in use
here is *not* public domain:
http://n2.nabble.com/VMap0's-license-issues-regarding-the-polbnd-layer.-td1883855.html
lays it out about as simply as possible. However, I have never seen
anyone treat this data as anything other than public domain data.

Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta