FED: Google bushfire map not helped by Vic govt
18 Feb 2009 9:10 PM
Subject: FED: Google bushfire map not helped by Vic govt FED: Google bushfire map not helped by Vic govt
CANBERRA, Feb 18 AAP - The Victorian government reportedly refused to provide information on the state's bushfires to Google so the internet giant could build a more detailed online map of the blazes.
Google's Australian director of engineering Alan Noble told a conference in Melbourne the state's Department of Sustainability and Environment refused to provide its internal data on the fires burning on public lands.
"It's ironic that I can download detailed NASA satellite imagery (of Australia) more readily than I can get satellite imagery from the Australian government," Mr Noble told the conference according to technology news site ZDNet Australia.
The problem, Mr Noble said, was rules governing copyright on Crown data which place copyright over all government-produced information to the government and stop it being used without explicit consent.
Nonetheless, Google has created a significant online map providing information on fires burning on private lands via information from the Country Fire Authority.
The map is at http://mapvisage.appspot.com/fires/FireMap.html.
AAP pv/jfm =0A
FED: Google bushfire map not helped by Vic govt