FAA/Aeronav Digital Product Changes

[chartbundle]

Well, I finally received a letter from the FAA about their digital product changes, some of the wording is a bit interesting. The preamble is inviting people to a meeting in December about the changes, this is what they say the background for the change is.

FAA's Aeronautical Navigation (AeroNav) Products has reengineered its business processes. One of the changes that we have identified is the need to have clear agreements with Authorized Agents on the distribution and packaging of our digital products. As safety is the key mission of the FAA, it is imperative that the integrity of our navigation products is maintained in digital forms just as it is in paper forms. April 5, 2012 will be the last edition of our products that will be distributed to individuals or businesses without an agreement. This forum is an opportunity to exchange ideas with interested entities and gain feedback on these agreements.

So, basically, they want money. The interesting bit is the part about distribution to individuals without an agreement, you have to wonder if this includes things like the A/FD and TPP they provide on their website for anyone to look at.

 

[Jim Logajan]

So I have to ask. How do digital chart "products" work in the boating community? How about topographic land charts?

http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/charts.htm

http://nationalmap.gov/

 

[Jim Logajan]

http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/charts.htm

http://nationalmap.gov/

This is probably most relevant - and Aeronav may wish to do something smilar with regard to IFR usage for example:

NOAA RNCs® may be redistributed, but redistributed NOAA RNCs® are NOT considered official NOAA RNCs®, and do not meet federal chart carriage regulations for regulated vessels. This official status attends only to the original downloaded files. NOAA has established a program under which distributors be certified to redistribute NOAA RNCs® such that the RNCs will retain their official status and meet applicable chart carriage regulations.* The RNC agent agreement can be viewed at http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/dist_require.html.

NOAA RNCs® and their geoTIF versions (future) may not be used to print commercial products. Individuals may print the NOAA RNCs® or their geoTIF versions for personal use, but the result is not a NOAA chart, and may not be used to meet federal chart carriage regulations.*

Copying of the NOAA RNCs® to any other server or location for further distribution is discouraged unless the following guidelines are followed: 1) this User Agreement is displayed and accepted by anyone accessing the NOAA RNCs®, and 2) a reference to this Web site is included so that anyone accessing the NOAA RNCs® is advised of their origin.*

If these NOAA RNCs® are incorporated into any other product in a form other than as provided by NOAA, the producer of that product assumes full liability.*
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/download_agreement.htm

 

[Jim Logajan]

I suspect they plan to get around the fact that it's public domain data not by copyright but by licensing it. So, anyone who wants the data at all has to sign the agreement and pay the fees. One item will surely be that whoever you give/sell the data to is also bound by the same agreement.

Without copyright, I don't see how any licensing mechanism could work. If some third party started to distribute digital charts for free, FAA/Aeronav could not charge them with violating a license to which the FAA is not a party. Even if the FAA could figure out the second party involved that it did execute a license with that distributed the charts to the third party, it couldn't do anything to them since the second party did not violate the license. The only way the FAA could get at the third party is by an onerous license clause effectively making all the second parties somehow responsible for third party violations.

That kind of onerous licensing just wouldn't fly - and I imagine would be contested in court as an attempt at pseudo-copyright.