[OSGeo-UK] UK postcode database

[Andrew Larcombe]

On 21 Sep 2009, at 16:40, Barry Rowlingson wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 3:55 PM, John A Stevenson
> <john.stevenson at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
>> The UK postcode database has been posted on Wikileaks.
>>
>> Now, just like a TomTom(TM) or GoogleEarth(TM), you too can find  
>> the lat-lon
>> of any address in the UK.
>>
>> http://wikileaks.org/wiki/ 
>> UK_government_database_of_all_1,841,177_post_codes_together_with_prec 
>> ise_geographic_coordinates_and_other_information,_8_Jul_2009
>
>  What's the difference between that and:
>
>  "A torrent file of MS Office has been put on www.thepiratebay.org,
> now you too can write documents and make spreadsheets"
>
>  Whatever we may think of open government and open data, I think the
> postcode database is still copyright material and distribution via
> wikileaks or any other mechanism is surely legally dubious.

Your analogy doesn't quite hold up as there are many ways to create  
documents and spreadsheets, but only one source of data for postcodes.

It is still copyright though etc...

Cheers,

A

-- 
Andrew Larcombe
Freelance Geospatial, Database & Web Programming