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Ordnance Survey Takes On Google
UK national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, is making moves to mark out its copyright territory in an attempt to keep its data out of the hands of internet search engine giant Google. This seems to have encouraged some advocates of free data to line up behind Google, which is usually seen as the antithesis of free data.
In a document titled Use of Google Maps For Display and Promotion Purposes and circulated to local government, OS prohibits the use of any OS-derived data for display on Google Maps.
It states that OS data or data derived from OS data can only be supplied to a third party in ‘limited circumstances’ - which do not include display on Google Maps.
‘[W]e believe the terms of the Contractor’s Licence are wholly inconsistent with what we understand to be Google’s standard terms and conditions,' the document states. 'Therefore, you cannot pass such information to Google for display on Google Maps, and we must remind you that provision of data to Google in this way would be in breach of Crown copyright.’
OS also warns against displaying OS-derived data on top of Google Maps: ‘Although you will not be passing any data directly to Google, by displaying such data on top of Google Maps in this way and making such mapping available to the public, it appears that you will be granting Google a licence to use such data…Google’s terms and conditions appear to provide that any display of data on or through the Google services grants Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such data.’
The message is clear. OS is determined to prevent archrival Google from getting at its data. Fair enough, one might think. Google is not exactly renowned for respecting intellectual property rights and OS is acting within its legal rights. Moreover, OS has been classified since 1999 as a government trading fund. This is something of a hybrid between a government agency and commercial enterprise. While it is still part of government, it financed through data licensing rather than direct funding from the tax payer. So if OS allows its data to be simply given away to rivals such as Google, Microsoft or Yahoo!, OS could find itself in serious financial distress.
But it’s not fair enough, say those campaigning for greater access to public data. Trading funds are still government agencies, even if they are held at arms-length. The core activities of these organisations must still meet standards of public accountability. The Guardian Technology’s Free Our Data campaign is unequivocal about the public right to access such information. According to its website, ‘The argument is simple: government-funded and approved agencies such as the Ordnance Survey and UK Hydrographic Office and Highways Agency are government-owned agencies; they collect data on our behalf. So why can't we get at that data as easily as we can Google Maps?’
The UK government’s Show Us a Better Way competition is a case in point. Designed to solicit ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated, the competition offered to fund the development of the best ideas submitted. In the spirit of the competition, previously invisible public data was made freely available, including detailed mapping from Ordnance Survey. However it now seems that those competition winners who intended to plot OS data on Google Maps are out of luck.
The territorial struggle comes at an interesting time. In the Pre-Budget Report released on 24 November, the Treasury has flagged its intention to review the ‘re-use of public sector information from trading funds’. More specifically, it states that ‘For the Ordnance Survey, this will involve consideration of its underlying business model.’
BBC News technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones thinks the announcement potentially signals imminent victory for those who want OS data to be more easily and freely available. We’ll have to wait for Budget 2009 to see.
