Debate About Availability of Data
The USA Freedom of Information Act and the Electronic Freedom of Information Act guarantee access to virtually all GIS data created by the US government. Following the trend of the United States, much of the VMAP data has been offered to the public domain.
But many countries consider mapping and cartography a state monopoly; for such countries, the VMAP Level1 data are kept out of the public domain. With the privatization of public agencies, some data are sold for a profit.
Various public groups are making efforts to have all VMAP1 data moved to the public domain in accordance with FOIA
Further steps have been taken by the Free World Maps Foundation and others to have the data licensed under the GNU General Public License, while remaining copyrighted, as an alternative to the public domain. This is an ongoing debate (as of 2006).
Read more about this topic: Vector Map
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