Free Charts Published on the Internet

richardandtracy

richardandtracy

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Does any country, other than the US, publish any charts for free on the internet?

The US also posts all it's coastal pilots - fantastic for cheaply planning those post retirement journies to Alaska! - and many charts. See them on http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov

Are there any european charts/ pilots available anywhere?

Regards

Richard
 
In the UK I believe all charts are subject to copyright and you can not, under law photocopy charts or even parts of charts without permission and payment of a fee.
 
I understand that there is a www.neo-modus.com/ which connects to"hubs" which are some where (who knows). I understand that U can download software 2 access these "hubs" which have all sorts of stuff on them, some it seems by request!
 
I have an ARCS chart plotter, with a Skipper licence, and paid about £130 per folio of electronic charts and though I can print off the chart in screen size pieces or a whole chart to stick together I have to sign a disclaimer that I won't use them for navigation.

How stupid can things get?


Phil
 
very stupid....really

My electronic charts are Navionics via a "Lowrance memory card".
My Lowrance unit permits me to record to the card etc (including sonar and navigation combined but enough of that...) the only thing I can't do is actually read the map data onto my PC at home to create the waypoints, routes etc direct. I can emulate my Lowrance unit and read the nav data etc I have recorded/saved to card but not actually access the underlying map.
Solution is going to have to be a spare power cable at home and a battery but I am not happy.
The really daft thing is that I can look at sonar recordings in glorious full colour at home, and by putting the mouse/cursor on an interesting feature get told the exact positional data - which I then have to translate to a paper map to see 'sort of where' it was. I can save it as an electronic waypoint to download back to the unit and then look but I can't close the loop! Reason given is copy protection issues of course....
 
I got threatened in a heavy-handed and totally humourless manner by the UKHO for reproducing a small section of an out-of-date chart I own and using the image for decorative purposes on a website . . . . the image in question was about 200x100 pixels, faded to a watermark and covered in text, but they wanted several hundred pounds in licence fees.

I got a free US chart and modified colour-wise it to look like a UK chart.

I should imagine that you could expect at least ten years at Her Majesty's pleasure for reproducing a whole Admiralty chart.

Of course, we are also the only country on the planet where the celestial mechanics of the tides are copyright . . . the UKHO will be copyrighting the use of any compass course you may wish to sail next, look out everyone.

<font color=blue>Nick</font color=blue>
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.bluemoment.com>
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Re: USA Freedom of Information Act

Navigational information falls under the USA Freedom of Information Act and so is available / distributable without practical limit. So far no country I know has followed in their footsteps. Any guesses when bureacracy in the EU might relinquish its grip in this area? That's right - the sun will go supernova first...


PWG
 
It gets even funnier - Here in Ireland the tides are owned by the UKHO. We can't reproduce any tidal data without paying £'s to the UK government for it.
 
RE: [url]www.neo-modus.comon[/url] the Internet

Er, um.

Looks dodgy. I don't think I like my computer being opened to anybody who cares to look. Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not taking it up.

Regards

Richard
 
Tiff etc.

Open into graphics package and convert to more useable form ... such as

jpg



Nigel ...
Bilge Keelers get up further ! I only came - cos they said there was FREE Guinness !
 
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