Victoria fires: Google bushfire map not helped by Victorian government

THE Victorian government reportedly refused to provide information on the Victoria fires to Google so the internet giant could build a more detailed online map of the blazes.

Google's Australian director of engineering Alan Noble told a conference in Melbourne the state's Department of Sustainability and Environment refused to provide its internal data on the fires burning on public lands.

"It's ironic that I can download detailed NASA satellite imagery (of Australia) more readily than I can get satellite imagery from the Australian government," Mr Noble told the conference, according to technology news site ZDNet Australia.

The problem, Mr Noble said, was rules governing copyright on Crown data which place copyright over all government-produced information to the government and stop it being used without explicit consent.

Nonetheless, Google has created a significant online map providing information on fires burning on private lands via information from the Country Fire Authority.

The map is at http://mapvisage.appspot.com/fires/FireMap.html

news.com.au 16 Feb 2009