Battle over Free and Open Access to County Geospatial Data Continues

I blogged previously about a court case involving Santa Clara County in California that was decided in favour of free and open access to county GIS data under California’s Public Records Acts (PRA). 

May 31 a different California appelate court decided in favour of  Orange County which charges $375,000 for their parcel database. After trying to obtain Orange County’s parcel file at the cost of reproduction, in 2009 the Sierra Club initiated a lawsuit against Orange County under the PRA.  In 2010, the Superior Court decided that the PRA exempts GIS databases from public record disclosure because the court concluded that they are “computer software developed by a state or local agency”.  A California appellate court agreed with the Orange County Superiro Court that a GIS database is covered by the PRA software exclusion because it concluded that “computer mapping systems” as defined by the PRA includes software and data. 

Since this decision conflicts with the another California appellate court’s decision in the case of Santa Clara County, it may take a California Supreme Court decision to resolve the issue.

Thanks to Bruce Joffe for pointing me to this.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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