[aprssig] GPS tracking how to get Lat/Lon's

[Scott Miller]

> APRS is only freely licensed for use in amateur radio. If you do not
> have a license, you should look into commercial licensing from the
> author, Bob Bruninga: http://www.aprs.net/vm/DOS/COMMERCL.HTM

Since I just covered this in the Yahoo APRS group, I'm just going to 
paste my message from there:

---

Bob owns the APRS trademark.  You can't call something APRS or use his 
logo without his permission.

Bob holds the copyright on the APRSdos program.  He can impose licensing 
restrictions ON THAT PROGRAM for people who choose to use it.

Bob (and maybe others) also holds the copyright to the APRS 
specification document.  You can't reproduce it without permission.

Bob has no legal authority to control what you do with the protocol. You 
can set up a commercial tracking system on commercial frequencies 
(within the limits of the FCC rules, of course) and run Xastir or any 
other program that doesn't include a non-commercial use restriction in 
its end-user license agreement.  You just can't market it as APRS(r) 
without Bob's permission.  As far as I know, it's been many years since 
Bob claimed otherwise.

See Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1879) for more on the idea/expression 
dichotomy.

Scott
N1VG