ABSTRACT
A large number of European mapping agencies act in a similar way to commercial organisations, and sell their products and licences for a price that reflects the market value of the data. Many governments take the view that the user rather than the taxpayer should pay for map data. The cost of licences is often dependent on the proposed use of the data, the amount of data, the spatial coverage of the data and the number of users who plan to use the data. In contrast, spatial data in countries such as Australia and Canada is freely available at the marginal cost of reproduction.
