-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Government of Canada Frees Topo Data
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:51:47 -0500
From: L Laliberte <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: CARTA-L : Canadian Map & GIS Libraries and Archives
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]

 From the Map Room blog....

http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2007/03/government_of_canada_frees_topo_data.ph
tml


Friday, March 9, 2007
Government of Canada Frees Topo Data
9:46 PM | Topo Maps & Trails
Last June, Paul posted something about a rumour that Natural Resources
Canada
had been on the verge of making digital topographic data freely
available, but
that it had been put on hold while the new minister reviewed the decision.
Today, Drew forwarded me an e-mail from within NRCan announcing, informally,
to stakeholders that the data will be free as of April 1; excerpts below:

In response to demands from users for no fee access to framework geographic
data and the increasing technological shift in the marketplace, Natural
Resources Canada (NRCan), is pleased to announce that starting April 1st
2007,
the Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) will change the way its Digital Topographic
Data (DTD) can be accessed. ESS will initiate a change from a cost recovery
environment to an environment providing no fee access to its current DTD
products.
On April 1st, 2007, NRCan will start to make its existing DTD products
available through the Geogratis Web portal. By combining the functionality
from the current On-line Purchasing and Subscribers Web sites, the user will
be provided with no fee access to DTD products. Under the new distribution
policy, commercial licenses will no longer be required, as all users will
obtain rights for unlimited use and royalty-free distribution of the data
through a single unrestricted use license agreement.
For subscribers, this means that beginning on April 1st, 2007, you will no
longer have to pay for access rights or subscriptions for DTD products. […]
For distributors, this means that beginning on April 1st, 2007, you will no
longer have to pay royalty fees for the commercial use of DTD products.


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