[GSDI Legal Socioecon] Top 10 Spatial Law and Policy matters of 2010

Wed Jan 12 09:48:27 EST 2011

Please note it is Kevin Pomfret!

> Dear Kate,
>
> great contribution, timely flashback. Thank you for submitting of Ken
> Pomfret's Top 10.
> I will forward it also to the participants of the L&SE Com Meetings held
> in
> Singapore plus experts of the European LAPSI project.
>
> Best regards,
> Gabor
> By the way please accept my Best Wishes for 2011!
>
> On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 6:08 PM, Kate Lance <klance_remote at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> See Ken Pomfret's Top 10 Spatial Law and Policy matters of 2010
>> [Spatial
>> Law and Policy blog]
>>
>> http://spatiallaw.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-spatial-law-stories-of-2010.html
>> 2010 was a big year for the geospatial industry. It was also a big year
>> for
>> matters related to Spatial Law and Policy. Below, in no particular
>> order,
>> are what I consider to be the Top 10 stories related to Spatial Law and
>> Policy in 2010.
>> 1. Europe's reaction to Google Street View. Countries continued to
>> express
>> privacy concerns in 2010 over Google's Street View collection,
>> particularly
>> when it was revealed that in some cases Google was also collecting
>> emails
>> and other personal information. However the response seems to have been
>> the
>> strongest in Europe. One of the results was Germany introduced efforts
>> to
>> regulate mapping efforts such as Street View.
>>
>> 2. Privacy legislation in United States includes "precise geolocation
>> information".
>> Following a series of Congressional hearings, two pieces of legislation
>> (one introduced and one simply proposed) intending to protect internet
>> privacy included language regulating the collection, use and sharing of
>> "precise geolocation information". The term was not further defined,
>> presumably leaving it up to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to
>> address.
>> Subsequently, both the FTC and the Department of Commerce issued reports
>> concerning internet privacy and both referenced location. Geolocation is
>> sure to be a hot topic on Capitol Hill next year.
>>
>> 3. "Free and Open Data". I have seen it alternatively described as "free
>> and open" or as "full and open" spatial data. Either way, there is a
>> growing
>> trend to make spatial data available at as little cost and with as few
>> restrictions as possible. This trend can be seen at the international
>> level,
>> (e.g. Global Earth Observation System of System (GEOSS) and Global
>> Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), the national level
>> (efforts
>> to release national data sets under Creative Commons-type licenses) and
>> at
>> the local level (e.g. increased availability of Open Street Map data.
>> This
>> effort could have a significant impact on the ability to combine and use
>> data sets from a variety of sources. It may also result in some data
>> suppliers from holding back their most valuable or sensitive data sets.
>>
>> 4. Mark Brender leaves GeoEye. Those outside the remote sensing industry
>> may not be aware of Mark, but Mark began extolling the many potential
>> benefits of commercial remote sensing in the early 1980's and since then
>> has
>> been actively working to promote the industry and the technology in
>> Washington and the media. Mark left GeoEye this year in order to work
>> more
>> actively with the GeoEye Foundation, an organization he helped start
>> with
>> CEO Matt O'Connell's assistance in 2007. Although Mark will remain
>> active in
>> the industry, his daily efforts to grow the industry will be missed.
>>
>> 5. Warrantless GPS tracking. Courts in the United States issued a series
>> a
>> conflicting decisions in 2010 as to whether law enforcement needed to
>> obtain
>> a warrant before using GPS or other tracking devices to monitor an
>> individual's movements. Confusion on such an important issue is
>> unacceptable. Hopefully it will be resolved in 2011.
>>
>> 6. Law enforcement obtaining customer location information. An important
>> decision was issued by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals this year as
>> to
>> whether law enforcement needed to obtain a warrant before obtaining
>> historical location information about an individual through their cell
>> phone
>> records. Unfortunately, the court punted. This issue is also too
>> important
>> to remain unresolved. In that regard, Congress is looking at updating
>> the
>> relevant portions of the Electronic Communications Protection Act
>> (ECPA).
>> This effort is supported by the Digital Due Process Coalition - a broad
>> coalition of technology companies and think tanks.
>>
>> 7. Privacy lawsuits. In December, there were two lawsuits filed against
>> Apple and a few application developers for collecting personal
>> information,
>> including location, associated with iPods and iPads without the consent
>> of
>> the owner. This is likely to become a bigger issue in 2011 and may
>> include
>> Android phones, given the uncertainty in this area of the law. In a
>> somewhat
>> related matter, Google was forced to pay the Borings of Pennsylvania $1
>> for
>> trespassing. (You will remember their invasion of privacy lawsuit was
>> dismissed in 2009.)
>>
>> 8. Crowd-sourcing. Crowdsourcing, community remote sensing, voluntary
>> geographic information (VGI), whatever you want to call it, became a big
>> issue in 2010. Undoubtedly, the proliferation of smart phones creates
>> the
>> possibility of a volunteer sensor network. However, it will raise a
>> number
>> of legal and policy challenges, including liability, privacy, national
>> security and intellectual property rights.
>>
>> 9. Ordnance Survey licensing terms. Ordnance Survey has taken a number
>> of
>> hits over the years regarding its policy on licensing of spatial data.
>> Its
>> decision in 2010 to reduce licensing restrictions was an important
>> event.
>> However, from my point of view the discussion and examples it used when
>> discussing issues such as what constitutes a derivative product subject
>> to
>> OS licensing is equally important. Clearly, OS put a good deal of
>> thought
>> into this issue and I recommend it as a useful resource to anyone
>> involved
>> in this area.
>>
>> 10 Accidents involving navigation devices. There were a few high-profile
>> incidents reported in the media related to satnav devices, including one
>> reported fatality. In addition, there was a lawsuit filed against Google
>> claiming an injury related to use of Google Maps. Not surprisingly,
>> plaintiff lawyers are discussing the risks associated with use of such
>> devices.
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Dr. Remetey-FÃ¼lÃ¶pp GÃ¡bor
> fÅ‘titkÃ¡r/Secretary-general
> Magyar TÃ©rinformatikai TÃ¡rsasÃ¡g (HUNAGI)
> Hungarian Association for Geo-information
> 1122 Budapest PethÃ©nyi Ãºt 11/b
> tel.:         +36 30/415-8276
> Skype:        hunagirfg
> e-mail:     gabor.remetey at gmail.com
> URL:       www.hunagi.hu
> http://hunagi8.blogspot.com (HUNAGI NaplÃ³)
> http://unsdihu.blogspot.com (HUNAGI blog in English)
>
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-----
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The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
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