Legal, Economic,

and Organizational

Issues in GIS
Outline
 Legal
- Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights
- Liability
- GIS in Court

 Economic
- Government role in data dissemination
- GIS industry

 Organizational
- Standards
Legal Issues
Note
 The law in the digital environment is in
flux

 There is little precedence, or case law,

upon which to build for the internet
community in general and the transfer
of electronic spatial data in particular
Copyright and Intellectual
Property Rights
 Copyright is the exclusive right given to a
creator to reproduce, publish, perform,
broadcast, and adapt work
 Intellectual property typically refers to the
rights conferred by the grant of a
copyright
 Copyright protects the investment of time
and effort by preventing the unauthorized
use of protected material
How Does Spatial Data Fit?

 Facts are not copyrightable

 spatial data = facts

 But data presentation (i.e. maps) are

copyrightable

 Therefore data providers protect their

interests through non-disclosure
contracts
 Electronic Data…
 Cannot strictly be considered a commodity of
trade or a good
 When stolen, the victim may not know of the
theft
 When information is sold, the vendor still has
it and may sell it again
 Intellectual property right laws vary
internationally – internet impact
 Thus the boundaries between criminal law and
intellectual property law blurs
“To permit legal action against data
theft, data publishers will have to
devise an armoury of techniques to
investigate and ‘reverse engineer’
images and digital maps to assert
and prove provenance. ‘Finger
printing’ of geospatial data with
distinctive but invisible features thus
seems certain to become more
widespread.” (Rhind chap 56: 777)
 Liability

 Legal liability is based on the concept of

causing harm
 “Knowing where liability lies is the whole
basis of the legal argument” (Cho 1998)
 There are two key forms of liability:
 Liability in contract
 Liability in tort
Liability in Contract
 Liability in contract arises when one
party fails to perform their duty or
responsibility (express or implied terms)

 A breach of contract entitles the other

party to a remedy
 Liability in Contract II

 Four types of computer contracts and

therefore four sources of liability:
 Hardware
 Software
 Personal contracts
 Contracts for the use of service bureaus to
conduct computer work
Limitations to Liability
 Exclusion clauses
 e.g. financial or time

 Boilerplate clauses
 the classic fine print

 Disclaimers
 e.g. accuracy specification
GIS Vendors Limit Liability

 By typically inserting a no-liability

clause in their software
agreements

 No warranty on
 performance
 suitability of functions
Liability in Tort
 Incorporates common law principles of:
 duty of care
 breach of that duty
 damage incurred
 causation

 Difficulty in determining extent

But…
 Tort liability is subjective and
ambiguous

 The potential “victim” also has a duty to

minimize the impact of damage or loss,
i.e. who is to blame when a silly GIS
user does bad GIS?
Areas of Negligence in GIS
 Hardware, software and systems
operations – avoided by disclaimers
 Error in supply of data, incorrect
analysis, and misrepresentation and
fraud
 Breach of statutory duty – sovereign
immunity?
 So Who Do We Sue?
“There are a number of possibilities. They include: data
providers (for neglecting to tag their data with error
information, for charging too much, for imposing unreasonable
and archaic precomputer-age access restrictions, and for slavish
adherence to outmoded copyright legislation to protect their
investment); GIS vendors (for selling systems that have no
warranty, for overcharging users, for selling deficient systems,
and for neglecting error propagation and certain areas of
functionality); system builders (for failing to develop intrinsically
safe applications and customizations from the GIS tools
available); the end user (for pressing the keys or wiggling a
GUI); and the decision makers (for believing the results).”
(Openshaw 1993: 457)
Minimizing Liability in GIS
 The universal adoption of standards

 Rigorous application of metadata

 Professionalization of GIS practitioners

 international accreditation
 code of conduct
 Another Way is…
to just give the data away
“Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency
thereof, nor any of their employees, contractors, or
subcontractors, make any warranty, express or
implied, nor assume any legal liability or
responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or
usefulness of any information, apparatus, product,
or process disclosed, nor represent that its use
would not infringe on privately owned rights.”
USGS
GIS in Court
 GIS is used as substantive evidence in
legal proceedings
….but GIS can lie

 Industry needs certification to ensure:

 Expertise – in a quickly changing field
 Professionalism – ethical conduct
Economic Issues
Government Role in Data
Dissemination
 Two options:
 open access
 limited access through “user pays”

 Government uses public money so data

belongs to public?
 Does a democratic society stem from
one’s ability to access information?
Open Access
 Pros:
 increase social and economic benefits
 ensure primacy of public interest
 avoid creation of government monopoly
 encourage development of industry

 Cons:
 National security
 Who assures accuracy, is legally responsible?
The U.S. Situation
 Data is disseminated by the federal
government freely or at cost of
reproduction or dissemination

 Exceptions include:
 matters of national defense
 confidential commercial information
 Some geological and geophysical
information
Limited Access (e.g. UK)
 Spatial data is sold at a price “the
market can bear”
 Profits are reinvested into equipment
and related activity
 Closed access to commercially valuable
GIS data prevails in UK and much of
Europe
 Commodification of
Spatial Data
 In US a huge industry in secondary data
products has developed as a result of
government policy

 This has led to product differentiation in

order to capture a market niche

 Future of services over software

(ArcIMS) – even more added value
 The Future of GIS
 From data providers to service providers

 From monolithic GIS to distributed GIS

 over the internet
 in other software packages

 From GIS specialists in monolithic

software to GIS specialists in niche
applications or services
Organizational Issues
Dispersed GIS

 Formerly GIS was centralized

 now it is dispersed among various
organizations

 Problem of data coordination

 we need standards
 e.g. COMPASS
NSDI (National Spatial Data
Infrastructure)

“a comprehensive and coordinated

environment for the production,
management, dissemination, and use of
geospatial data. The NSDI was conceived to
be the totality of the policies, technology,
institutions, data and individuals that were
producing and using geospatial data within
the USA.”

(Rhind Chap56: 782)

GSDI (Global Spatial Data Infrastructure)

 A global framework of compatible

NSDI’s to support the examination of
critical global issues as environmental,
social, and economic issues cross
borders

 Supports ISO/TC211 standards towards

interoperability
ISO/TC 211 and OGC
 There is overlap and co-operation between
these two specifications

 They aim to enhance communication and

ensure interoperability

 OGC’s vision:
“the complete integration of geospatial data
and geoprocessing resources into mainstream
computing”