[ESIP-all] Fw: [Department_chairs] Serious Legal Threat to the GIS and Mapping Communities]

[Dick Wertz]

RE: MAPPS Case -- Amicus Brief AcceptedAll 
    Please see the attached material from John Townshend.  MAPPS v. United States could have a profound impact on the GIS Community.  We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed.  In the meantime, please feel free to share the brief and act as you deem appropriate.  Regards, Dick

Richard C. Wertz, Executive Director
Foundation for Earth Science
3839 Calmes Neck Lane
Boyce, Virginia 22620
(540) 837-9613
(540) 837-9614 fax
(571) 437-6586 cell
----- Original Message ----- 
From: John Townshend 
To: Dick Wertz 
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 7:47 AM
Subject: [Fwd: [Department_chairs] Serious Legal Threat to the GIS and Mapping Communities]




-------- Original Message -------- Subject:  [Department_chairs] Serious Legal Threat to the GIS and Mapping Communities 
      Date:  Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:08:27 -0500 
      From:  Douglas Richardson <drichardson at aag.org> 
      To:  <department_chairs at aaglistserve.org> 
      CC:  specialty_groups at aaglistserve.org 



A Call for Help to All of our Friends and Colleagues in the GIS and Mapping Commmunities:

   

    Attached for your information is a concise two-page Legal Briefing regarding the pending lawsuit which was recently initiated by the "Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors" ("MAPPS"), et.al., against the US Government in federal District Court.  



   The attached Legal Briefing notes that:  

    

    "The case of MAPPS v. United States (E.D. Va. No. 1:06cv378), currently pending in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, could have dramatic consequences for the entire mapping community, including the GIS industry.  Simply put, an adverse outcome would effectively exclude everyone but licensed architects, engineers, and surveyors from federal government contracts for 'mapping' services of every sort and description - not just those mapping services traditionally provided by surveyors."



    This Legal Briefing was prepared by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, a leading national law firm, at the request of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), to provide accurate, clear and legally-informed information regarding the Claims asserted by the MAPPS plaintiffs in their lawsuit--and the potential consequences of these Claims--to our colleagues in the GIS Industry and in the broader Geography and Mapping Communities. 



    The AAG and its attorneys believe this lawsuit is a serious threat to the GIS Industry and to the larger Mapping Community.  Together with several other associations (URISA, GISCI, GITA, and UCGIS), the AAG has developed and filed an Amicus Brief and other legal documents in opposition to the litigation initiated by MAPPS.  Additional information on this pending lawsuit, including legal documents filed by MAPPS and others, is available at www.aag.org. 



    If you as an individual, a company, or an association--in consultation with your attorneys--believe that you could be negatively affected by the MAPPS litigation, or are merely outraged at the nature of the Claims made by MAPPS, et.al., as so many others are, please consider supporting our legal and educational efforts to oppose this litigation and related activities, with a donation to the MAPPING AND GIS COMMUNITY DEFENSE FUND, at www.aag.org/help . 



Sincerely,



Douglas Richardson, PhD

Executive Director

Association of American Geographers

1710 Sixteenth Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20009 



PS:  Please feel free to share this information and the attached Legal Briefing with others in the GIS and Mapping Community who may be affected by this litigation.





-- 
John Townshend
Chair, Department of Geography
Room 2181A, LeFrak Hall
University of Maryland
College Park
MD 20742

Chair's assistant 301-405-4051 
OR Department office 301-405-4050  
Fax 301-314-9299



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Department_chairs mailing list
Department_chairs at yoda.browsermedia.com
http://yoda.browsermedia.com/mailman/listinfo/department_chairs

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.rtpnet.org/mailman/private/esip-all/attachments/20070216/0376688d/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: MAPPS Case Legal Briefing - 2007 02 12.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 161641 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.rtpnet.org/mailman/private/esip-all/attachments/20070216/0376688d/attachment-0001.pdf