Geospatial Data Licensing Workshop

Geospatial products and services require aggregating data from a variety of sources, (federal, state and local government, commercial proprietary, “open data” and the “crowd”).  Increasingly, geospatial data is being licensed rather than sold to users. Each data set is subject to its own license/data sharing agreement that contains diverse and even contradictory terms on matters such as use/re-use of the data, ownership of derivative products, representations, warranties and covenants.  These products and services are often then licensed to and/or used by third parties. Both data providers and their customers are impacted by the licensing of geospatial data.  In addition, the difference in licensing terms often makes it a challenge to determine what products/services a government agency or business can create using geospatial data and what rights it has in the products/services that have been created. 

As a result, the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy is holding another of its series of professional workshops on the licensing of geospatial data. The workshop will be held on Thursday, January 24, 2013 at Tyson’s Corner Marriott, 8028 Leesburg Pike, Tyson’s Corner, VA, 22182.  The half-day program will take consist of two panels from government, industry and the legal community. The first panel will focus on the “business” issues associated with the licensing of geospatial data and will discuss topics such as alternative licensing models, business and operational issues and the recently approved “Guidelines for the Procurement of Geospatial Mapping Products”. The second panel will discuss the legal issues associated with licenses/data sharing agreements and will include topics such as standard licensing terms, “open” licenses, derivative products, “back-to-back agreements” and spatial data audits.

This workshop will benefit many constituencies in the geospatial community, including data providers, end users, procurement officers, system architects, lawyers and contract administrators. Each will benefit from practical information on licensing that will help them address some of the most challenging issues facing the geospatial community today. 

More information about registering for the workshop and a copy of the agenda can be found here.