Texas Bill to Require Disclaimer on Geospatial Data
A bill before the Texas legislature will require a disclaimer to accompany geospatial data products created or hosted by a government body if the data "was not produced using information from an on-the-ground survey conducted by or under the supervision of a registered professional land surveyor." The disclaimer must be posted for data on a paper map or Internet-hosted and will be in the following form:
This product is for informational purposes and may not have been prepared for or be suitable for legal, engineering, or surveying purposes. It does not represent an on-the-ground survey and represents only the approximate relative location of property boundaries.
Analysis of the bill explains the details in less legal terminology. The bill has passed the Texas Senate and is due to be voted on by the House soon with the law to take affect on September 1st. According to GITA, bills exist before other state legislatures that have "expanded the definition of land survey to include photogrammetry GIS and remote sensing."
