Imagine if the US Postal Service had a copyright on all ZIP code information, so that if you wanted to put something on your web page that tied together with ZIP code searches, you had to pay them an annual fee? Or if the US Geological Survey had a copyright all official maps of the US, and if you wanted to display one online, you had to pay them a yearly license?
Interestingly, that’s just the case in the UK, where the Royal Mail owns the postal codes, and the Ordinance Survey owns the official maps. And now a couple of organizations are trying to break that official monopoly.
A growing number of organisations are deciding that if the Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey won’t free the data that they have collected with public funds, then they will do it themselves.
This week sees two new initiatives, one to map the country’s roads, and another to map postcodes independently of the Royal Mail, to route around the complex licencing schemes both are wrapped up in; and perhaps eventually, suggests one organiser, to “optimise” Britain’s road networks for a time when oil is too expensive to be used to fuel passenger cars.
Cool.
(via BoingBoing)