It seems recently there has been a lot of comment on user forums, blogs and even national newspapers around data ownership in the UK. As many UK organisations, but particularly government ones, obtain their data from the Ordnance Survey this isn’t a new thing. However the exchanges between a well known search engine and the Ordnance Survey over the past couple of months seem to have reached new heights – and restrictions. The whole topic is a moving target with each organisation regularly changing it’s position. Most recently Google updated it’s terms for the “free” API on 26th November, seemingly a little for the better. However there’s nothing to stop anyone from reversing any changes being made.
I often get asked my opinion on the subject and if it is “safe” to use such an API. I would dodge that question a little, there is no doubt that there is a time and a place for a fantastic service such as Google maps. However in the industry I always refer to one line: Data is King. As such if you value your data – and you should – be very very careful what you do with it. The issue of licence and data ownership is very serious and ignoring it could have severe consequences. I’ve noticed in talking with organisations it is the departments which don’t “own” or manage the data which seem more inclined to turn a blind eye to some terms and conditions which should be scrutinised.
As far as data ownership goes, that book still seems closed – if you created a data layer based on OS data, they own the XY. Google have stated that if you create on top of Google maps, then you own it, which sounds fantastic until you realise that they use TeleAtlas, who in turn get data from guess who?? and that one is still unanswered.
Please contact the Ordnance Survey for their official position
Google ‘free’ API licence can be found here: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.html
Data is king, but the key issue here is that people can be totally in control of their data, not even let it out of their hands/off their website, but OS still won't let you do that because of the T&Cs that you sign up to with the mapping service supplier(s).
There's also the small issue of severable improvement, when the whole problem may go away anyway …