The GRADE project is part of JISC's Digital Repositories Programme

GRADE (http://edina.ed.ac.uk/projects/grade) is considering legal, technical and social issues surrounding the use of repositories for geospatial data sharing and reuse.

Geospatial material created in the education sector can be highly
complex, incorporating data created elsewhere either as found, or
customised to fit the particular need of the academic or lecturer. The
downstream rights can become very complex, as it is necessary to ensure
that permissions have been gained to reuse or repurpose the data, and it
is usually essential that correct attribution is made. There are
currently concerns and confusion over the assertion of IPR and copyright
of created geospatial data particularly where third party data are included.

The AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law have completed a report considering a licensing strategy for the sharing and re-use of geospatial data within the UK research and education sector. The report also puts forward a conceptual framework for resolving those described rights management issues raised in
relation to repositories.

The report is available at
http://edina.ac.uk/projects/grade/gradeDigitalRightsIssues.pdf.

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Anne Robertson
EDINA
tel: 0131 651 3874
a.m.robertson@ed.ac.uk