SDI Convergence - Nederlandse Commissie voor Geodesie - KNAW

Standard Licences for Geographic Information:
the Development and Implementation in
Local Government in Italy
L. Garretti 1 , S. Griffa 2 , R. Lucà 2 and M.T. Lopreiato 2
1 Regione Piemonte, Italy, luigi.garretti@regione.piemonte.it
2 CSI Piemonte, Italy, {griffa.silvana, roberta.luca, mariateresa.lopreiato}@csi.it
Abstract
As technological innovation in the digital frontier advances, many types of content are
becoming rapidly available, with no exception in geographic information. Sharing and
disseminating geographic information, available by public administration bodies, assume
an important role in the geographic information field, above all with the INSPIRE
Directive and the Directive on re-use of public sector information. Based on digital
rights management principles, a new electronic licensing model was developed by
Piedmont Region in Italy, fully adhering to the INSPIRE principles promoting sharing
and re-use of geographic information. The model will be effectively implemented in the
near future.
Keywords: geolicence, use rights, GeoRM, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
1. THE DIFFUSION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: ACCESS AND USE POLI-
CIES
As technological innovation in the digital frontier advances, many types of content are
becoming rapidly available in digital format, with no exception in geographic information.
In fact, the number of uses of geographic information has increased in particular
with the evolution of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). New web services and
digital media make it easier to access information, so geographic contents can be easily
shared, used and reused across the digital domain by various users and devices.
This involves particular attention in the use of services and electronic documents, offering
greater possibility to share information which, however, at the same time, could allow
violation, also involuntary, of third parties' or subjects' rights which share information
and metadata. Geographic information moving across digital networks may limit
the power of content providers to check the flow of their intellectual property in the geographic
marketplace. Increasingly, many public and private information providers wish
to protect their information and define distribution policies whilst, at the same time, the
users are unaware of the use rights related to a specific resource.
In this context of information sharing, the INSPIRE Directive assumes an important role
in the geographic information field. The aim of INSPIRE is to create a European Infrastructure
for geographic information to support implementation and monitoring activities
related to the environment at European, national and local level. The components of
this infrastructure include also agreements on sharing, access and use. the Directive
will encourage both the wider sharing of geographic information and services, while
respecting intellectual property rights of public administration bodies. It also proposes
to implement electronic licences and supports the automated transfer of legal rights.
Currently, public authorities use paper-based licence agreements to protect their intellectual
property, with which the acquiring party obtains digital information under restrictions
in terms of use, reuse and dissemination rights (Iannella, 2001). Piedmont Re-
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