-------- Original Message --------
Subject: ONCs, TPCs, and JOGs - sending comments to NGA
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:45:55 -0800
From: Mary Larsgaard <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Organization: UCSB Map & Imagery Lab, Library
To: Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
------------------
It is very important that those of us who
know how very useful and important
these map series are to U.S. citizens
send email comments - stated positively - to Mr. Jarvis
on this matter..
What would be most
effective would be if every map librarian
in the U.S., and every heavy-duty map
user who is on MAPS-L, sent off
an email to Mr. Jarvis. I've included
below the email I sent him.
Mary Lynette Larsgaard
Map and Imagery Laboratory
Davidson Library
University of California
Santa Barbara CA 93106-9010
USA
voice telephone: 805/893-4049
fax: 805/893-8799
email: [log in to unmask]
---------------
Dear Mr. Jarvis:
Thanks to NGA for the opportunity to comment on
NGA's intent to remove these specific series from
public sale.
Speaking as a person who has worked as a map librarian
in the U.S. for 35 years, I strongly encourage NGA to continue
to make these series available to the U.S. public.
I do understand that the military has no statutory requirement
to provide aeronautical information to the U.S. civilian
audience. I would like emphasize how very important
continuing availability of these 3 map series is to law-abiding,
tax-paying U.S.
citizens. Every week - sometimes several times a week -
in my map library, sheets in one or all 3 of these
series are used by students and faculty of this campus.
This pattern of use is repeated in libraries throughout
the United States.
ONCs, TPCs, and JOGs are
relatively small-scale maps that are very helpful
for U.S. citizens who need an overview look
at relatively large areas of the Earth's land surface -
and at a reasonable price per sheet, which
U.S. citizens and U.S. libraries can afford.
And given that the cartographic information
is collected by a U.S. government agency,
it is equitable for that information to be
available to the U.S. taxpayers who funded
the data collection.
Continuing to make sheets in the series available (with
the aeronautical layer removed if need be) would keep
U.S. citizens well informed of the world around them, at the same time
that it would be very good, and very inexpensive,
public relations for the U.S. military.
I suggest the following ways to deal with the
problems stated in the Federal Register of November 18, 2004:
I. National security issues:
a .The cartographic/remote-sensing-image products
that terrorists need appear to me to be
high-resolution satellite images, very large-scale
aerial photographs, and very large-scale architectural plans.
ONCs at 1:1,000,000, TPCs at 1:500,000, and
JOGs at 1:250,000 do not begin to be large
enough scale for that sort of use.
b. This may be very cynical of me to say -
if these 3 series are no longer available to
the U.S. public, the U.S. public will be
cartographically impoverished, while the terrorists (if they need
this small a scale of map to target their sites, which seems unlikely)
will get the charts the same way they get armaments that in law
they are not supposed to be able to obtain -
by illegal methods such as stealing or purchase on the black market.
II. Avoiding intellectual-property disputes with foreign agencies:
a. NGA should copyright each of the sheets in all 3 series, using
a phrase in the form of, "Copyright 2004, United States
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. All rights reserved."
b. I was *aghast* when I read that U.S. commercial firms are
republishing data off charts on which a foreign country's chart-producing
agency's copyright is clearly stated on the charts!
This unethical, illegal behavior needs to stop immediately,
and the quickest way to do that is for NGA to
have a very broad copyright statement on each chart.
c. We in libraries are very careful to honor
copyright statements. For example, a few weeks back,
a student here requested that
my library scan a JOG that had those copyright
statements on it, and I told the student that he would
need to get copyright releases from the agencies
before it would be ethical and legal for the library to
scan the chart. (FYI, the student was working on a thesis
and needed the chart in digital form for his background research.)
d. While I regret seeing a U.S.-government-produced
map being copyrighted - the U.S. tradition of not
copyrighting U.S.-government-produced maps is
extremely important both for general use and to
encourage commerce - since the data from
foreign-government agencies is copyrighted,
then these charts also need to be well protected
by copyright.
III. Upholding terms of bi-lateral geospatial
data-sharing agreements: wouldn't NGA's copyrighting
of each chart also satisfactorily deal with this matter?
IV. Avoiding competition with commercial interests:
a. Major mapping projects of the Earth - such as ONC, TPC,
and JOG - require a substantial amount of money
both to begin and to maintain the series, and the
willingness to accept very long-term payback,
measured in decades. This means
that generally these map series are carried on only by governmental
agencies; commercial firms cannot justify the large
up-front money or the long payback time.
b. To the best of my knowledge, there are
no commercial products at 1:250,000 (JOG's scale),
1:500,000 (TPC's scale) or even 1:1,000,000
(ONC's scale) that cover the entire world land surface.
The available series at these scales are produced by either by
another country's national/military survey, or
by a non-governmental organization.
For example, the UN's project - International Map
of the World 1:1,000,000 - seems mainly to be
moribund, with few new sheets produced - and
the newer sheets appear to be mainly
in the U.S. military Series 1301.
At 1:500,000, the only other series I know of
is the former Soviet military's Mir 1:500,000.
And there is no other governmental-agency-produced
1:250,000-scale series; there is the former
Soviet military's 1:200,000-scale series,
but it is not (as far as I know) complete for all land surfaces.
Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on this matter.
Mary Lynette Larsgaard
Assistant Head, Map and Imagery Laboratory
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara CA 93106
805/893-4049
fax 805/893-8799
[log in to unmask]
---------------------------------------------------------
[Federal Register: November 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 222)]
[Notices]
[Page 67546-67547]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18no04-31]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Office of the Secretary
Announcement of Intent To Initiate the Process To Remove
Aeronautical Information From Public Sale and Distribution
AGENCY: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Department of
Defense.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) intends to
remove its Flight Information Publications (FLIP), Digital Aeronautical
Flight Information File (DAFIF), and related aeronautical safety of
navigation digital and hardcopy publications from public sale and
distribution.
This action is taken to accomplish the following objectives:
safeguarding the integrity of Department of Defense (DoD) aeronautical
navigation data currently available on the public Internet; preventing
unfettered access to air facility data by those intending harm to the
United States, its interests or allies; upholding terms of bi-lateral
geospatial data-sharing agreements; avoiding competition with
commercial interests; and avoiding intellectual property/copyright
disputes with foreign agencies that provide host-nation aeronautical
data.
The DAFIF and related digital aeronautical information files will
be protected from general public access on the NGA home page (<a
href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nga.mil">http://www.nga.mil</a>
). Aeronautical Flight Information Publications (FLIP),
Navigation/Planning Charts (ONC, TPC, etc.), and the DAFIF CD will be
available only through the Department of Defense (DoD) distribution
system. U.S. Federal and State government agencies, authorized
government contractors, and international agencies that currently
receive those products under formal or informal geospatial data
exchange arrangements will not be affected by this action.
DATES: NGA will implement this action on October 1, 2005 (FY06).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about the
substance of this notice, contact Joseph S. Jarvis, Aeronautical
Division, MS L-27, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 3838 Vogel
Road, Arnold, Missouri, 63010-6238 (e-mail: <a
href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]</a>).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NGA and its predecessor organizations (DMA
and NIMA) have published DoD's flight information products since the
late 1940s to support the worldwide missions of DoD aircraft. The
publications are sold to the public through the auspices of the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA), and the digital data has been freely
available on the Internet. Notwithstanding a prior practice of making
some of DoD's flight information available to the public in the past,
NGA does not have a statutory requirement to produce aeronautical
products for general civil aviation.
With the proliferation of digital capabilities throughout the
international aviation network, the preferred method of information
exchange is shifting from paper-based to electronic dissemination.
Numerous countries that heretofore relied on host-government agencies
to compile and publish their aeronautical information have recently
transferred that responsibility to commercial or quasi-governmental
agencies. Some of these foreign agencies are beginning to assert
intellectual property rights to the aeronautical data within their
territorial limits and are refusing to provide such aeronautical data
to DoD so long as NGA makes it available to outside interests, whom
these agencies view as possible competitors in the international
marketplace. NGA relies on foreign data obtained through bilateral
geospatial information sharing agreements, and certain nations may
impose restrictions on their data against release to third parties.
Accordingly, there is a rational basis for limiting access to
aeronautical products created for DoD use to DoD and governmental end
users.
By removing national defense aeronautical data from open source
access NGA seeks to accomplish two additional objectives. First, NGA
will reduce the vulnerability of critical navigation data on the
Internet. Second, it will limit/eliminate unfettered access to that
data by organizations and individuals intent on causing harm.
In conclusion, with the accomplishment of this proposed action NGA
aims to protect the sources and integrity of its data, honor its
bilateral agreements restricting non-governmental use, avoid
competition with commercial interests, and allow NGA to focus on its
primary customers and mission, supporting the Department of Defense.
[[Page 67547]]
Dated: November 12, 2004.
Jeannette Owings-Ballard,
OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 04-25631 Filed 11-17-04; 8:45 am]
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