Copyright Legislation Impacts on GIS - Essay Example

Copyright Impacts on GIS users Professional Life Copyright Legislation Impacts on GIS Users Professional Life Farzeela Copyright Copyright protection has been in existence in one form or another for hundreds of years to protect original work from being copied without the prior consent of the creator of the work. In UK, the current copyright legislation is based upon the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988, as well as referring back to the 1956 and 1911 Acts in specific circumstances. The legislation has also been supplemented by subsequent Directives derived from Europe and international conventions and treaties. Recent changes in legislation has been made by introducing some new acts in the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 and the Copyright Act 2002. Although copyright does not protect ideas, or it does not limit the boundaries of a creator but it does protect the expression of ideas produced in a tangible or material form. It specifically protects the following categories of creative works. Artistic works Musical works Dramatic works Literary works Typographic editions Films TV/radio/cable broadcasts Sound recordings In UK, the copyright protection does not require formal registration. It automatically exists as soon as a work is created, as long as it satisfies some basic criteria. These include having its originality or showing its judgment and skill. (MDA, April 2005) Type of Work Duration of Copyright Artistic works (such as paintings, drawings, prints, collages, sculpture, video art or photographs - including negatives and prints) Lifetime of the artist + 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died. Literary works (published, performed, broadcast or offered for sale. Examples include: books, poems, letters, manuals, journals, song-lyrics and e-mail). Lifetime of the author + 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died. Literary, dramatic or musical works that have not been published, performed broadcast or offered for sale. The earlier of either 70 years after the end of the calendar year in which the first of such acts took place or 31 December 2039. Sound recordings, published, performed, broadcast or offered for sale. 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which they were made or if published in that period 50 years from the year of publication. Sound recordings that have not been published but played in public or communicated to the public. 50 years from that event. Musical compositions, published, performed, broadcast or offered for sale. Lifetime of the composer + 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the composer died. Engravings, unpublished prior to 1 August 1989. 50 years from 1 January 1990 or 70 years from the end of the year in which the artist died, which ever is the later. Engravings, unpublished prior to 1 August 1989. Lifetime of the author + 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died, or 50 years from the end of the year in which the engraving was first published, whichever is the later. Broadcast and cable programmes. 50 years from the first broadcast or delivery. Films. 70 years after the death of the survivor of the principal director, the author of the screenplay, the author of the dialogue or the composer of the soundtrack (as long as at least one of them is a national of the European Union and the country of origin of the film is a member state of the European Union). Crown Copyright For published work, 50 years from the end of the year when first published. For unpublished work, 125 years beyond the year it was created. Parliamentary Copyright Mostly 50 years beyond year it was created. Exceptions include bills of parliament. Typographical arrangements 25 years from the end of the year in which the edition was first published. Computer generated works (in the cases where there is no human author). 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work is made. Database Collections Full term of other relevant copyrights in the material protected. In addition, there is a database right for 15 years. Accessed from (MDA, April 2005) < http://www.w3c.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/loose.dtd> GIS (Geographic Information System) Any information that has a location on the Earth's surface can be considered as geographical information and when this information follows the form of maps in computerized system, it is called GIS. This includes census data, hospitals admissions data, relief data from contour lines, text about specific places or photographs or images of particular locations. Accessed from A GIS is an organized collection of hardware, software, geographic data and personnel designed to efficiently receive, process, analyze and interpret all types of data of geographic orientation. (http://gis.cbs.gov.il/eng_claligis.htm ) Questions that GIS can answer GIS by using information on latitude, longitude and information such as earth's characteristics (radius) can perform queries as it uses geography, or space, as a common key between files. Generally, a typical GIS can answer five types of questions: 1. Location 2. State 3. Processess 4. Patterns 5. Prediction Accessed from < http://gis.cbs.gov.il/eng_claligis.htm> GIS Thematic Map Examples Thematic maps come in all shapes and sizes, for example: a map of farmer's fields showing a different colour for each type of crop grown different sized point symbols to show the relative population of towns a display of a road network with different colours to show average traffic speeds and a density map to show average numbers of badgers across different counties. Accessed from < http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/gisfiles/section4/page2.html> Copyright Impact on GIS Copyright is among one of the most specific legal issue which affects not only the users of GIS but the professionals are also affected by this issue in several ways. Extreme care is required by the professionals to avoid any consequences that lead to copyright disputes. In Great Britain, the government is able to sell valuable information that has grown immensely with GIS and related information technologies over the years and recover the costs of creating and maintaining the value of information. In the U.K., the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) formed a Copyright Working Party in 1992 which was charged with examining the issue exhaustively by preparing a guide on copyright for producers. The AGI after holding a seminar presented some recommendations regarding copyrights in which one of the keypoint was "Copyright protects any intellectual or physical activity under the sweat of the brow principle". However, it is questionable whether the simple act of scanning data to produce a list would qualify for protection or not. Nor is the act of showing a boundary by drawing a line on a map. Compiling lists of data which produce information would be covered, as it is "intellectual manipulation". Copyrighted information can be copied if it is on "general public release", i.e. in the public domain. There is no restriction on using "scientific data", copies of which can be legally sold. Generally, you cannot copyright a fact but you can copyright the way in which facts are presented. The copyright of computer software, whether agency-created or developed and copyrighted by a third party, also has raised access concerns. By controlling access to the software, one can control access to the data that software manipulates. Joint GIS applications raise additional copyright questions such as: Who "owns" the copyright of specific surveys, maps, plans or other underlying "works" comprised, or intended to comprise, the database As GIS database consists of compilation of various original work, who owns the copyright in the actual database, particularly where copyright of the underlying work is not owned by the creator of the GIS application. (Tom Wright, 1997) Example For the producer of a GIS product, consider an example. If two persons survey the same area of ground and produce identical maps, they both can legally claim copyright, as original works of art. If both go on to collect the same information relating to the mapped area, perhaps environmental data, and overlay it onto those maps, they can both also claim copyright on this data as a literary work. Different compilations of the same data, presented in different ways, will also result in copyright protection. Basically, anything that results from "original work" attracts copyright protection. Example Let us review a hypothetical case relating GIS which was put forward in Mapping Awareness magazine by Gary Moss of the law firm Taylor Joynson Garrett in the UK: "Four producers create information and earn copyright protection. An unscrupulous company, X, then uses the information without permission, licensing it (illegally) to publishing company Y, who then goes on to sell the product to users A, B, and C. Since X has infringed the producers legal copyright, what is the legal position of publisher Y, the end users A, B and C, and what actions can the producers take against X Also, if X were to disappear, could A, B and C or even Y take action against the original producers" Another practical example of the adverse affect of the legal impact on a GIS product relates to a real life experience of earlier this year in which a GIS-based marine environmental monitoring system being developed by the United Nations was cancelled. The purpose of the system was to assist small island nations in tropical areas to monitor the state of health of their coral reefs. In certain nations, such as the Maldives, disappearance of the outer reefs could lead to disappearance of the atolls themselves. The proposed GIS included maps of coastal, littoral and underwater ocean areas, oceanographic data, an expert system to aid local officers in using the information provided by the system and pictures of underwater flora and fauna, i.e. corals, fishes, etc. After all the efforts and arrangements were made, it was not found possible to assemble all the components of this system from the various copyright holders at a cost acceptable to either the UN or the small island nations who would have used it. The most surprising is the fact that tropical reefs are still disappearing, at a frightening rate in many areas. The lesson for producers of GIS products and services, especially those without prior experience of publishing either software or information products, is to beware regarding certain aspects of the GIS like public access, liability, error or incorrected mistakes, flawed policy, privacy, copyrights and the value of public information. They should also consider and evaluate the potential negative effects on the future success of their product which might be caused by the legal problems. (Roger A.Longhorn, http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/legal/en/lab/lisbon/longhorn.html) Bibliography Central Bureau of Statistics MDA, (2005) Accessed from < http://www.w3c.org/TR/1999/REC-html401- 19991224/loose.dtd> Ordnance Survey, Roger A.Longhorn, Tom Wright(1997) Read More