Crown Copyright crushing UK Mapping Innovations

This is a post to make people aware that government agencies are stifling UK innovations.

"Public money paid for it - but the public can’t view because of crown copyright"

Says the Guardians Free Our Data Campaign

"Imagine flying at rooftop height up the Thames. You dive under Tower Bridge, then twist between the Gherkin and Tower 42 skyscrapers. As the London Eye looms, you bank right and dive into a translucent globe which transports you into the middle of St Paul's cathedral."


But you can't put it online!

"Although Virtual London was funded by another state body, the computer model cannot be posted on the web without infringing Ordnance Survey's copyright."

"Public money funds it, yet "public" copyright keeps it shut away."

But how can Geographically data be locked down to some ceramic hard drive and not accessible to the people who paid for it?

Nicely timed just ahead of Christmas, the Department for Constitutional Affairs has put its Statute Law Database online. You can search for any extant law, and various others - including how upcoming legislation will affect existing laws.
This was protected under crown copyright so why can this be released to the public free of charge and available online?

Come on Ordnance Survey sort your out of date crown copyright.
Reduce your prices to commercial vender's and you will gain more consumers and increase your incomes 10 fold.

Sources:
http://freeourdata.org.uk/blog/
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1981821,00.html
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/aboutus/
yourinforights/copyright/index.html

Even little company Google are having issues with Ordnance Survey -

"The sticking point is understood to be Google's attempt to negotiate a fixed fee for the data, rather than accepting Ordnance Survey's practice of charging by the number of transactions. Ordnance Survey would not comment on the specific case, but said that a fixed fee would "wreck the level playing field for other partners" - and it should be noted that it is obliged to treat all customers (including itself) on the same terms. OS said it is happy for its data to be used in a "Google-type" environment. "Sites such as Multimap and Streetmap use our data and their services are freely available to the public over the web.""