Geographic Information Legal Protection

In the current well-developed information society, physicalmaterials, energy and information are regarded as the top three resourcesto human beings. According to the statistics, geographic information (GI)that has correlations with space and time holds 80% of the informationgross. GI is applied in many fields, such as business, city planning,transportation, census and disease analyzing. Some important GI exertssensitive influence and importance on national safety and sovereignty.By virtue of the importance in national economy and society, thelawmaking of GI has attracted more and more attention. The legislationon GI has not reached to its full size while the current provisions of GIin China cannot meet demands of the development of the GI industry inthe new era. This paper probing into the legal protection on GI isdivided into four parts.Part One: The concept of GI and the Significance of the LegalProtection on GI. The author firstly introduces the concept and featuresof the GI and draws out two relevant concepts, namely, geographicinformation data and geographic information system (GIS). Secondly,the author discusses the great significance of the legal protection on GIexpressed by its huge economic value, connections with the nationalsafety and sovereign and multilayer legal relations.Part Two: The Harmony of Interest Conflicts in the LegalProtection on GI. A series of conflicts of interests arises from theconfirmation of the information right, exchange and secrecy of theinformation in the process of the production, circulation and use of theGI. The lawmaker should strike a delicate balance among the subjects ofinterest and harmonize the interest conflicts so as to accelerate thedevelopment of the GI industry.Part Three: Comparative Law Review on Legal Protection onGI. The author in this part reviews on the advanced legislationachievements in United States and EU and draws a conclusion that their legal protection on GI centralizes on Copyright Law, Freedom ofInformation Act and Privacy Law. Influenced by national legal cultureand tradition, different countries have different characteristics inlegislation of GI, for example, the standard for copyright protection onGI, government copyright, etc. U.S and EU governments take effectiveactions to develop the industry of GI on one hand and protect thecitizen'privacy from infringement on the other hand.Part Four: Perfection of the System of Legal protection on GIin China. Upon analyzing the status quo and present problems of the GIindustry in China, the author in this part probes into several importantproblems regarding the legal protection on GI, namely, the propertyright of GI, the information sharing and price, the protection on personalprivacy in GI and information liability for inaccurate GI. Finally, thisauthor proposes her own advice to perfect the system of legal protectionon GI in China.