As you may or may not know, on Saturday May 26th, I removed all geocaching data from
my web site (http://www.brillig.com/geocaching/)
and my cache maps went blank. Jeremy Irish, who runs the geocaching.com website, had requested
two days earlier that I make two changes to my web site:
- Remove the list of "Lost Caches" from my web site, and
- Place the message "Geocaching Data Copyright 2001 Grounded, Inc." on each of my web
pages as well as on each of my map images.
When I suggested we might compromise on these two issues, I was told by Mr. Irish in
no uncertain terms that "there is no sort of compromise [possible]" and I was threatened
with legal action if I did not comply with his "requests" by the end of the weekend. At
the same time, my access as a player to the geocaching.com website was effectively blocked.
Since this was the Memorial Day weekend, I was unable to seek legal advice within the
deadline imposed by Mr. Irish. In respect to Mr. Irish's copyright claims, and because
at the time I was unsure of the legalities involved, I removed all references to cache
data from my web pages. My geocache maps went blank.
I have attempted communication with Mr. Irish on several occasions over the past nine
days. Five days ago, I told him that "I have every intention of respecting [his]
copyright." and requested a clarification as to what information on his pages he was
claiming copyright.
I did not receive a reply. Surprisingly, I have not received any direct communication
from Mr. Irish, or anyone else claiming to speak for Grounded, Inc., in over a week.
During the past week, I have spoken to a number of experts in both Copyright Law and
Intellectual Property Rights. I explained the concept of geocaching to them and showed
them print outs of my web pages and gave them a tour the geocaching.com web site. It
is their opinion that data, or collections of data, such as names, addresses or map
coordinates cannot be protected by Copyright Law.
While I respect the hard work of Mr. Irish on his web page, I cannot respect his claim
of copyright of geocaching data. For that reason, I will not be honoring his request
that I place "Geocaching Data Copyright 2001 Grounded, Inc." on my map images and my
web pages.
In the spirit of cooperation however, I have acceded to his first request and have
removed the Lost Caches page from my web site. In addition, I have placed the notice
"Geocache data has been gathered from geocaching.com, geotreasures.com,
navicache.com, and other sources. We thank them all!" on each of my site's web pages.
The geocache maps I have created are back online. Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
-Ed Hall (Buxley)
