Mapping Hacks

For the last couple of years, Jared has been making an effort to collect and freely redistribute 1:24K DRGs - hand-drawn topographic maps - published by the US Geological Survey. He has finally cracked, bought the complete set from a USGS reseller, and is holding the geodata to ransom until he can recoup what he laid out on it, then hosting it with the Internet Archive.

The “ransom model” is a bold new initiative in cost recovery of geographic information, and perhaps it’s one the National Mapping Agencies of Europe could consider following; at least, under the ransom model, geodata would get into the public domain eventually.

Posted in geodata, licensing, funny |

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