Terms and Conditions of Use (yes, this is actually interesting content)

Revised October 16, 2019

Disclaimer and Release of Liability 

1. You have accessed the Geomatics Reference Network™ (GRN™).  THIS SERVICE IS FOR REFERENCE ONLY AND IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL SURVEY NOR A PROFESSIONAL GEOMATICS SERVICES PRODUCT.  The GRN takes network security and integrity seriously. You should too.  This resource is NOT intended for the general public, and is intended for professionals only.  The GRN  monitors many aspects of the network and its subscribers, and vows to  protect the overall security and integrity of the resource from misuse or other harmful actions.
2. This resource was developed from many sources and is subject to continuous updating.  Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. There is no warranty or representation, expressed or implied, of the content or accuracy of the information contained herein.  Therefore, subscribers, other data providers, contributors, and the GRN™ shall not be responsible or held liable in any way for the accuracy, use, or completeness of the data or any of the information contained herein for any purpose whatsoever.
3. The GRN™ possesses no authority for parcel or real property boundaries and associated rights, and recommends procuring a professional geomatics service provider or qualified attorney for matters related to geomatics or legal issues.  
4. All geospatial data and associated information contained within the GRN™ is intended for subscriber use only.  Neither the GRN™, nor its subscribers, shall redistribute, share, or otherwise publicize the information contained herein with non-subscribing individuals, companies, regulatory agencies, governmental units, or any other organizations.  Subscribers shall continually check these terms and conditions, as they are updated on a periodic basis.
5. Our core foundation is built upon one simple premise:  We do not buy data, nor do we sell data. This data in this platform is compiled from contributions, so let’s make it better every day!

 Terms, Conditions of Use, and Subscriber Obligations

1. The GRN™ is primarily intended to serve the professional geomatics (surveying), geospatial, and civil engineering community.  Ideal GRN™ subscribers may be licensed professional land surveyors, GIS professionals, or licensed professional civil engineers,  along with their direct employees or associates, whose professional practice or organization deals directly with land, right of way, and boundary information management on a continual basis. Although, at this time, there is no definitive methodology for determining exactly who or what entity may qualify as a subscriber, the GRN™ reserves the right to determine a more defined range of subscribers as the resource is developed.  

2. To ensure data security, subscribers will have a username and password generated after the registration process has been completed.  This information shall not be duplicated or redistributed to any other party.

3. In order to foster continual improvement and development of the GRN™ as a viable long-term resource for professionals, by professionals, it is strongly encouraged for subscribers to submit finalized and approved boundary and/or right of way survey documentation (field located survey points, maps, or both) for each newly completed boundary or ROW survey project to the GRN™, when applicable.   

4. Contributions may include, but not limited to, any one or combination of the following: 

a. Coordinate-based survey point data for monuments or property corners only. Just as outlined in the Standards of Practice for Surveying, physically recovered corners shall have the      explicit, spelled out designations of “Found”, “Set”, “Reset”, “Obliterated”, or “Calculated” as the first word in the description of a monument or property corner,, with data formatting to reflect Point, Northing, Easting, Elevation, and Description (PNEZD).  This will dramatically assist with data integration, search, querying and data management procedures.  The GRN is only interested in compiling information related to physical monuments or property corners, as all other information shall be discarded.

b. pdf, jpg, tiff, etc., boundary survey document image files from modern or digitally scanned historical maps or plats.

c. photographs associated with features

d. other digital information to be determined

5. Contribution exemptions may include: projects involved in court cases, confidential information, or similar sensitive circumstances.  Contributions will have subscriber information associated with each submission. For subscribers who do not submit contributions on a regular basis (time period, contribution quantity and frequency to be determined), a proper course of action shall be designated by the GRN™.

6. All data and information contributed by a subscriber will remain within the exclusive realm of the GRN™, regardless of subscription status, and cannot be retracted at any time by the contributor unless ominous circumstances or situations are proven to exist by said subscriber. 

7. Furthermore, it will be MANDATORY for contributions of all coordinate-based survey point data be referenced to a known or published coordinate system and datum.  

ACCEPTABLE spatial references for the GRN™ may be: 

a. Decimal Degrees (Lat,Long) may be added nationwide.

b. NAD 83 State Plane Coordinates, with designated coordinate units ft. (Alabama only)

1. UNREFERENCED SPATIAL DATA MAY NOT BE ACCEPTED, unless special circumstances or consideration is warranted for the submittal process.  Since the Network will have such a vast geographic and user footprint, data must be standardized to this common format.
2. Although coordinate-based survey point data contributions may be submitted with values represented to the nearest hundredth of a foot (0.00’), all values within the GRN™ will be displayed to the nearest whole foot (0’).  This will assist the subscriber with identifying and locating features, but will not possess sufficient precisions for reproduction of point information contained therein for use in generating any new professional geomatics or engineering work product by other subscribers. Coordinate values will be displayed as X, Y values.
3. Time-based, duplicate or overlapping points will be displayed as a means of further documenting the same purported physical monument at a given location.  Therefore, a subscriber may trace the visible and/or tabular history of the recovered monument based on the possibility of multiple contributions of the same physical monument over time by various subscribers.
4. The GRN does not desire to be, or ever become, an authority of any sort when dealing with discrepancies among contributions within The Network.  Subscribers shall be responsible for resolutions to any and all issues related to conflicting content. Items to consider would be:

a. Discrepancies shall be first communicated and addressed by the involved parties to resolve the issue amongst professional practitioners. 

b. Data integrity and security of the GRN™ is the primary goal, and therefore reserves the right to uphold this cannon by not comprising data security or integrity.

c. At no time shall information submitted or contributed by the subscriber to the GRN be considered or used as information to file a complaint or any other type of regulatory action with    any other regulatory board which governs land surveying.

Remember, YOU are the NETWORK!  Please let us know your thoughts on how to improve the GRN™, as we are committed to making this resource the best it can be.