Thanks to @mia_out on Twitter, I've just found out about:
http://osconsult.ernestmarples.com/
"The Government have launched a consultation on how to make Ordnance Survey data free with no restrictions on reuse."
Full details are given in: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1411177.pdf
The deadline for responding is 17 March 2010.
What do you think would be the best approach to take here? A single official comment from Wikimedia UK? Persuading lots of Wikimedians to emphatically say "yes"? Both of these? It isn't clear to me whether they want detailed, logical responses or large numbers of responses saying the same thing, although I haven't read through the whole document yet...
Mike
On 30 January 2010 20:29, Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net wrote:
What do you think would be the best approach to take here? A single official comment from Wikimedia UK? Persuading lots of Wikimedians to emphatically say "yes"? Both of these? It isn't clear to me whether they want detailed, logical responses or large numbers of responses saying the same thing, although I haven't read through the whole document yet...
Both, possibly.
Considering the PM Petition response was basically "fuck off", this one may take a bit of leverage. OS are *resisting bitterly*.
Wonder if a representation from WMF would help or hinder.
- d.
2010/1/30 David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com:
On 30 January 2010 20:29, Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net wrote:
What do you think would be the best approach to take here? A single official comment from Wikimedia UK? Persuading lots of Wikimedians to emphatically say "yes"? Both of these? It isn't clear to me whether they want detailed, logical responses or large numbers of responses saying the same thing, although I haven't read through the whole document yet...
Both, possibly.
Considering the PM Petition response was basically "fuck off", this one may take a bit of leverage. OS are *resisting bitterly*.
Wonder if a representation from WMF would help or hinder.
- d.
The data or the maps though. Copyright wise the two present a different situation.
However It's not as significant as it might seem. Open street maps combined with contour data from the 7th series which is drifting into the public domain render the issues mostly one of convenience.
In terms of challenges tracking down copies that the owners will let you scan of OS maps already in the public domain is going to be more of a long term challenge.
On Sat, 2010-01-30 at 21:58 +0000, geni wrote:
2010/1/30 David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com:
On 30 January 2010 20:29, Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net wrote:
What do you think would be the best approach to take here? A single official comment from Wikimedia UK? Persuading lots of Wikimedians to emphatically say "yes"? Both of these? It isn't clear to me whether they want detailed, logical responses or large numbers of responses saying the same thing, although I haven't read through the whole document yet...
Both, possibly.
Considering the PM Petition response was basically "fuck off", this one may take a bit of leverage. OS are *resisting bitterly*.
Wonder if a representation from WMF would help or hinder.
The data or the maps though. Copyright wise the two present a different situation.
However It's not as significant as it might seem. Open street maps combined with contour data from the 7th series which is drifting into the public domain render the issues mostly one of convenience.
In terms of challenges tracking down copies that the owners will let you scan of OS maps already in the public domain is going to be more of a long term challenge.
This is a political thing that the WMF, or at least WMUK, should be taking an active interest in. Were OS in the US all the data would be PD.
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org