{"id":1809570,"date":"2022-10-28T11:16:37","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T15:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1809570"},"modified":"2022-10-28T19:43:43","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T23:43:43","slug":"mapping-without-a-licence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/10\/mapping-without-a-licence\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping Without a Licence"},"content":{"rendered":"

An odd story out of California, reported on by Vice<\/em>\u2019s Chloe Xiang<\/a>, from earlier this month. Ryan Crownholm\u2019s website, MySitePlan.com<\/a>, sells residential and commercial site plans. California\u2019s Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists has fined him $1,000 for practising land surveying without a licence and ordered him to shut down the site. He\u2019s fighting the citation in court with the assistance of the libertarian Institute for Justice: see their page on the complaint<\/a>. Their argument is that California surveying laws are vague enough that a literal interpretation would make any map drawn in California, no matter how informal or non-authoritative, illegal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely to say the least that the Board intends to ban Google Maps or every California-based instance of GIS. This is an edge case. Crownholm\u2019s defence turns on his drawings being \u201cnon-authoritative\u201d and a disclaimer that these are not legal surveys. The Board apparently thinks that\u2019s insufficient. A spot of litigation seems required to clarify things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An odd story out of California, reported on by Vice\u2019s Chloe Xiang, from earlier this month. Ryan Crownholm\u2019s website, MySitePlan.com, sells residential and commercial site plans. California\u2019s Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[323,407,1358],"class_list":["post-1809570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-surveying","tag-california","tag-censorship","tag-law","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1573,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/04\/the-trig-pillar-at-80\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809570,"position":0},"title":"The Trig Pillar at 80","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 April 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The Ordnance Survey are\u00a0marking the 80th anniversary\u00a0of the Retriangulation of Great Britain, which began on this day in 1936. More from BBC News.\u00a0Events include the Trig Pillar Trail Challenge, which invites people to post pictures to social media of one of 25 selected trig (triangulation)\u00a0pillars (the #TrigPillar80 hashtag is very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"andrew-trig-pillar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/andrew-trig-pillar-1024x620.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/andrew-trig-pillar-1024x620.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/andrew-trig-pillar-1024x620.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/andrew-trig-pillar-1024x620.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":965,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/02\/george-washington-mapmaker\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809570,"position":1},"title":"George Washington, Mapmaker","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 February 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Last week,\u00a0Slate\u2019s Rebecca Onion looked at the surveying and mapmaking career of George Washington. Her main source is\u00a0this page\u00a0by the Library of Congress's Edward Redmond. \"Beginning with his early career as a surveyor and throughout his life as a soldier, planter, businessman, land speculator, farmer, military officer, and president, Washington\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"george-washington-alexandria","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/george-washington-alexandria-1024x820.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/george-washington-alexandria-1024x820.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/george-washington-alexandria-1024x820.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/george-washington-alexandria-1024x820.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1809372,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/10\/the-tellurometer-with-a-girl-to-help\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809570,"position":2},"title":"The Tellurometer, with a Girl to Help","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 October 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L7SJVBX7jxo To start off your weekend, here\u2019s a 1961 clip from British Path\u00e9 depicting the surveying and mapmaking technologies of the era. [Massimo]","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/L7SJVBX7jxo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3937,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/02\/mapping-the-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809570,"position":3},"title":"Mapping the Past","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 February 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Another book I missed at the time of its\u00a0publication: Charles Drazen's\u00a0Mapping the Past:\u00a0A Search for Five Brothers at the Edge of Empire (William Henemann, August 2016). It's a family history: Drazin's grandfather and brothers were\u00a0military surveyors from rural Ireland \"who travelled around the world as officers in the Royal Engineer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mapping-the-past-193x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5238,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2011\/08\/when-mapping-gets-you-arrested\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809570,"position":4},"title":"When Mapping Gets You Arrested","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"19 August 2011","format":"link","excerpt":"Wired UK reports on how an OpenStreetMap contributor got arrested in Reading after \"a paranoid guy called the police.\" (Here's the contributor's own take.) On-the-ground surveying with a GPS is a great way to contribute to OpenStreetMap, but it's not hard to see how it might be construed as suspicious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5402,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2012\/12\/the-measure-of-manhattan\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809570,"position":5},"title":"The Measure of Manhattan","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 December 2012","format":"link","excerpt":"Another mapmaker is getting a book-length biography. The Measure of Manhattan, Marguerite Holloway's biography of surveyor John Randel, Jr. (1787-1865), whose decade-long survey of the island of Manhattan was the basis for that city's street grid, comes out in February. Via BLDGBLOG, who blurbed it: \"Marguerite Holloway's engaging survey takes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1809570"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1809574,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809570\/revisions\/1809574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1809570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1809570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1809570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}