Although legal and policy issues spanning the operation of the entire National Information Infrastructure are being addressed by others (e.g. See, for instance, [50], [51]), it has become apparent that disputes and policy debates over the use of spatially-indexed information will become the test cases for establishing information legal policies in several critical areas of the law, particularly at the state and local level [53], [52]. Therefore, the objective of research under this project will be to address that subset of legal and policy information issues directly relevant to the dissemination of geographic information.
It is spatially-indexed data products and services, as opposed to other forms of electronic data, that government agencies at a variety of levels are attempting to sell. Thus, it is largely these datasets that are giving rise to legislative efforts by agencies and municipalities to restrict public access to government information in digital form [18]. These datasets are at the center of attempts by local and state governments in the U.S. to impose copyright, licensing, and other work product protection devices against the public that previously have been imposed by government only in rare instances [16], [40], [57]. Furthermore, the sale of spatially-indexed datasets, products and services and the private enterprise nature of such sales that are giving rise to concerns that government should bear increased liability burdens [17]. Because spatial database technology is a data integrating technology and because spatially indexed data are inherently local in nature, the technology has the potential for being far more invasive of personal privacy than other information technologies. The current power of processing and crossmatching of spatially indexed datasets with other data are raising some of the strongest privacy concerns now being voiced by the general public; particularly in regard to impermissible intrusions by the commercial sector [24].
In response to these observations, the research in this project will explore four interrelated aspects of information law critical to the handling of spatially indexed information: (1) access rights of citizens to publicly held geographic information, (2) intellectual property rights in spatial databases, (3) privacy rights and principles, and (4) liability in the use, sharing, and distribution of spatially-indexed information. Currently, for example, geographic information systems (GIS) are being used in thousands of jurisdictions across the U.S. and a large range of approaches is being used in accommodating each of these four interrelated aspects of the law. Comparative analysis of the varying arrangements is highly desirable in order to expose those local government information policies and arrangements that best promote increased access to spatial databases and under what circumstances or limitations. The groundwork for this research is already being accomplished under NCGIA Research Initiative 16 on Law, Information Policy, and Spatial Databases [54]. This project will extend the studies currently being pursued by legal scholars and other researchers under that initiative. However, an emphasis will be placed in this project on applying the knowledge gained in order to construct a suite of legal arrangements that will best encourage local and state governments to make their data sets available through use of the technology being developed by this project.