Campaign demands end to public information rip-off

A campaign by The Guardian newspaper to make public-funded information freely available has uncovered some embarrassing government double standards.

The  Free Our Data  campaign by the newspaper’s technology supplement is calling for government data held by taxpayer-funded public bodies such as the Ordnance Survey (OS) to be made available to companies and members of the public without charge.

“The aim is simple: to persuade the government to abandon copyright on essential national data, making it freely available to anyone,” said Charles Arthur, editor of Technology Guardian . Arthur said that the current restrictions placed on government information were holding back innovation and limiting the number of information services.

A campaign blog has generated a lively debate, including the revelation by civil servant Chris Hancox that British citizens pay repeatedly for the same OS data when applying for planning permission.

Hancox has revealed a complex web of payments whereby taxpayer funded local government bodies pay for OS map information as part of planning applications, with planning authorities paying again for similar OS map data. In all, eight different payments are made to the OS, according to Hancox ( click here for more news on public sector information).

There has been little response to the campaign from the government. A Cabinet Office spokesperson told IWR that the government welcomed the discussion, but was not reviewing its public sector information policy.

However, an Office of Fair Trading investigation into public sector information is in progress.

The OS has denied the campaign’s claim that it doesn’t help new businesses to develop. It has pointed out it has a developer programme and spent £10.5m in the year 2004/05 on 5,000 daily changes to map data, collection and distribution.

The Office of Public Sector Information , which is responsible for overseeing re-use of public information, has just widened the click-use licence scheme for public organisations. “Now seemed to be the right time to launch the campaign, especially with Andrew Gowers – the former FT editor – reviewing copyright law,” Arthur told IWR. “This is an important subject. Data is becoming more valuable all the time.”

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