Dan Gillmor has a short comment and a discussion going on his blog about the brew-ha-ha over government crack down on subway map re-distribution.
- More Copyright Crackdowns, This Time by Government, by Dan Gillmor, 09/27/2005.
The orginal story about this is:
- IPod Maps Draw Legal Threats, By Matt Reed, Sep. 26, 2005, Wired.
“Transit officials in New York and San Francisco have launched a copyright crackdown on a website offering free downloadable subway maps designed to be viewed on the iPod.”
While some of the discussion ranges over whether or not the maps in question are or are not copyrighted and how to work around it if they are, Gillmor calls it an “outrageous abuse of governmental power.” Others point out the increasing privatization of this kind of information provided by governments.
It is certainly a harbinger of decreased access and increased control over what should so obviously be information in the public domain.
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