via code.flickr.com

Flickr is releasing all of the Flickr shapefiles as a single download, available for use under the Creative Commons Zero Waiver. That’s fancy-talk for “public domain”.

The long version is:

To the extent possible under law, Flickr has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to the “Flickr Shapefiles Public Dataset, Version 1.0”.

This work is published from the United States. While you are under no obligation to do so, wherever possible it would be extra-super-duper-awesome if you would attribute flickr.com when using the dataset. Thanks!

Flickr is doing this for a few reasons.

1. We want people (developers, researchers and anyone else who wants to play) to find new and interesting ways to use the shapefiles and we recognize that, in many cases, this means having access to the entire dataset.

2. We want people to feel both comfortable and confident using this data in their projects and so we opted for a public domain license so no one would have to spend their time wondering about the issue of licensing. We also think the work that the Creative Commons crew is doing is valuable and important and so we chose to release the shapefiles under the CC0 waiver as a show of support.

3. We want people to create their own shapefiles and to share them so that other people (including us!) can find interesting ways to use them. We’re pretty sure there’s something to this “shapefile stuff” even if we can’t always put our finger on it so if publishing the dataset will encourage others to do the same then we’re happy to do so.

Posted via web from ivanwalsh’s posterous

Posted via web from ivanwalsh’s posterous

Dan Cohen highlights that the way Kindle and the Kindle iPhone are set up, you have no idea how many times you can download a book, or how many devices can be used to read it. His excellent article discusses the problems facing anyone who’s bought a Kindle as it seems that Kindle can’t tell (as far as I understand) how many times you have downloaded an ebook, especially if you are synced up to iPhone.

[ad]

Here’s what happened to Dan.

‘Making the situation even more confusing is the fact that the DRM information actually varies by publisher, and to find out how many times they will allow you to download a book you have to visit the legalese. Sometimes the info isn’t there, either. The worst part is this was all confirmed by an Amazon tech support person:

Dan – “How I find out (sic) how many times I can download any given book?” I asked.

Amazon tech support, “I don’t think you can. That’s entirely up to the publisher and I don’t think we always know.”

Dan – “You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn’t say ‘this book can be downloaded this number of times’ even though that limitation is there?”

Amazon tech support, “No, I’m very sorry it doesn’t.”

Now, this might be ok for light summer reading but with reference books, for example, which you want to read today, on your iPhone 3GS, and next year, on the theoretical iPhone 4G, it gets very tricky.

Dan points out that with certain books, you could be limited in such a way that your reading material does not follow your gadget’s natural upgrade cycle.

Over on Gear Diary the discussion continues with “Amazon should update its policy so this info is out in the open and easily accessible. The best case scenario would be to allow consumers to actually, you know, literally own the books they’ve just bought.

Amazon tech support – “if some of the books will download and the others won’t it means that you’ve reached the maximum number of times you can download the book.”

Dan asked him what that meant as the books he needed to download weren’t on any device as he’d deleted those devices and wanted to reinstall.

Amazon confirmed his worst fears.

There is always a limit to the number of times you can download a given book. Sometimes, it’s five or six times but at other times it may only be once or twice.

The worse news is…

Once you reach the cap you need to repurchase the book if you want to download it again.

So if Amazon/Apple wants you to upgrade your Kindle/ iPhone/ iPod touch every year or two, this means that although the books remain in your Kindle library online you may not be able to download them once you upgrade your hardware.

And there is no way to know — at least according to what the customer service rep told me.

You can read the full articles  here:  http://www.geardiary.com and here http://gizmodo.com

[ad]

LOGO2.0 part I

Originally uploaded by Stabilo Boss

Social Media & Web 2.0 Mosaic.

Click on this image and it will open in Flickr.

You can then click on all the logos – the links are active.

Excellent piece of work.

LOGO2.0 part I

Originally uploaded by Stabilo Boss

Social Media & Web 2.0 Mosaic.

Click on this image and it will open in Flickr.

You can then click on all the logos – the links are active.

Excellent piece of work.