Free tidal info petition copied from P.B.O forum

[tonybarebones]

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Tidetable-data/


We have been asked to circulate the following message which relates to a "PM.GOV Petition" asking for tide table information to be made available at no cost:

"This may well be of concern to all of our sailing friends, or friends who have friends who go down to the sea in ships - small or otherwise. Please could you go to the following web site: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Tidetable-data , and sign the petition. We believe that this data should be available to all in any form that they desire. Effectively it seems to us that the Government is trying to copyright a natural phenomenon. Move over Canute!

If you think it important enough, please could you forward the information on to your friends as well. The timescale for this petition is short - so please spare a few minutes to do this".

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Any perceived grumpiness in my posts is entirely your perception. Geddit?

 

[damo]

Even though I have signed up for this petition, there are a couple of points which are a bit misleading:

Tide data IS freely available. If you know where to look eg Pangolin, WS Tides.

There is no attempt to copyright a "natural phenomenon" - that can look after itself! The issue is whether an agency which has developed a method of predicting that phenomenon should make its calculations freely available. I happen to think that a public body should, so I have signed up.

I also noticed that the sigs in capital letters seem to denote MPs?

 

[BrendanS]

Did a search on the people with capital letters, and none of them appeared to be MP's just people that have entered their names in capitals

 

[damo]

I didn't check it out, but I recognised several of the names.

Are there any posts you DON'T look at, Brendan? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[BrendanS]

I used to read every post on every forum here, but it's got a bit too busy on here to do that now, so no, not any longer! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[chrishelen]

Tony am i missing something?in my favorites section is a web site called easy tide which lets me acsess tide data free of charge allready.There are quite a few web sites that allow you to do this. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[damo]

Not very handy though if you want tide tables...

"EasyTide has been improved, now enabling you to select the date of your prediction. Choose any date between 100AD and up to 50 years in the future and access tide predictions for 7 or 14 days at a time. Enhanced predictions also include other useful information such as times of sunrise/sunset, lunar phases and Springs and Neaps data. Prices for enhanced predictions start at £1 (inc. VAT) for a 7 day prediction. Further information about pricing is available.

Predictions for the forthcoming week are still available free of charge."

 

[chrishelen]

Ok thanks.I will petition the goverment to get this free.