Legal Issues Relating to GIS
These materials are under development. You may use them, but please acknowledge
their source and authors: Margaret Lynch and Kenneth E. Foote, The Geographer's
Craft Project, Department of Geography, University of Texas at Austin.
Please send comments and suggestions to k.foote@mail.utexas.edu . All commercial
rights reserved.
Legal issues are becoming as important as any other in promoting or
limiting the development of GIS technology. Certainly legal considerations
must now be kept in mind during the creation and implementation of large
public and private GIS projects. Debate focuses on a number of key issues
and questions.
Contents
The
Freedom of Information Act
Open
Record Acts
Two
Fundamental Questions Have Arisen
-
How much public information do private citizens have the right to demand
-
Can government agencies recover costs by selling public data
Agencies
Have Three Basic Choices
-
They can bear the full cost of information generation and distribution
-
They can recover distribution costs
-
They can attempt to generate income
The
Federal Information Reform Act
Kinds of Liability
Is
There a Right to Check and Appeal Information Held in a GIS?
Can
the Government Set Limits on Encryption
Copyrights
and the Value of Public Informtion
6. Readings
7. Examination
and Study Questions
Last revised 16 October 1999. LNC.