Mapping Hacks

This press release, reposted to the EGIP list, made me yelp:
Ordnance Survey lobbies MEPs over INSPIRE wording

Tho it doesn’t mention the proposed INSPIRE directive by name, it illustrates the semi-privatised UK National Mapping Agency’s commercial obsession and greedy monopoly fairly clearly:

“We need to remove any ambiguity in the wording, as it would be a disaster for the Ordnance Survey if it was not able to charge public authorities and others for its work.”

The debate over state-exercised monopoly of public goods, versus government cost-recovery and money incentive in accurate mapping rumbles on, and OS is unconcerned, the poster child of the centre-right-led government information licensing market.

Posted in policy |

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