On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 10:49:51 -0500, Shane Partain
wrote:

----------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Office of the Secretary


Announcement of Intent To Initiate the Process To Remove
Aeronautical Information From Public Sale and Distribution

AGENCY: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Department of
Defense.


ARGGHH! This kind of stuff burns me up. It sounds like Mayor Daley's
excuse for removing Meigs... Just mention it is for safety and then
do whatever you want.

This one is even more asinine because the data is already out in the
public domain, and anyone could get the data via Jep or whoever if
they wanted.

Reading further - the announcement does mention the REAL reason:
"...upholding terms of bi-lateral geospatial data-sharing agreements;
avoiding competition with commercial interests"

It is a shame that our government buys the equipment, installs the
equipment, maintains databases of it's condition, location, etc...,
and then (probably due to lobbyists) cannot make it available back to
the taxpayer and end users.

-Nathan