Geographic Information Science: Mastering the Legal Issues Paperback - 2005 - 2nd Edition

From the rear cover

GI Science is a fast growing technology that is an instigator of change and, as such, confronted with emergent legal problems. Spatial information users and providers are increasingly concerned about the legal implications relating to the use and dissemination of geographic information.

Geographic Information Science: Mastering the Legal Issues is about geographic information policy and the legal implications of sharing public sector spatial information data. It covers issues of contract, liability and negligence for erroneous and inaccurate data, ownership of tangible and intangible intellectual property rights, and the question of privacy. The general principles guiding legal frameworks surrounding GI in different countries are presented as examples to analyse, explain and describe court decisions and policy reasons behind the law. Attention is given to recent developments in e-commerce and geo-commerce, particularly in relation to location-based services, geodemographic studies and GPS navigation.

Features include:

• Examples, legal cases and material taken from a range of countries and jurisdictions;
• Case studies illustrating and highlighting practical legal problems in using GI for business, government and academic research;
• Key strategic, technical and legal issues in deploying GI systems;
• Recent developments and changes, interpretation of the law, and an outline of implications for GI managers;
• Signposts as further reading and URLs to assist further understanding.