Proceedings of the Workshop - United Nations Office for Outer ...

106 EXPANDING GLOBAL REMOTE SENSING SERVICESimportant changes in the international laws andagreements that govern meteorological data and theinterpretation of "free and unrestricted exchange."The twin forces of rising national debts andincreasing economic value of all kinds of data producedpressure from national governing authorities in manycountries to make national meteorological services(NMSs) self-sustaining. This resulted in a number ofnational services selling government data. In some casesthese sales provide at least five to ten per cent of theiroperating budgets.68 The question of whether a nationalservice ought to do this involves different fundamentalconcepts regarding the proper relationship between thepublic and private sectors. The United States, forexample, favors a separation between the two, leavingentrepreneurial market activities such as value-addedservices and information distribution activities to theprivate sector. Other nations hold a different viewwhich allows national agencies to engage in profitmakingventures in an effort to recover costs.In European practice, weather data users arecharged for data and this is considered by the weatherservices to be a fair cost-sharing mechanism. In theUnited States, data users are provided data at the costof reproduction. In this view, data are considered apublic good and, because data must be produced for thegovernment’s own use anyway, providing them to otherusers incurs no substantial costs. The United StatesNational Weather Service has come to rely oncommercial value-added retailers and others todistribute weather information, making them an integralpart of the overall weather services system. In theEuropean view, private sector retailers compete withthe NMSs. If private sector providers are able to obtaindata they inhibit the services ability to recover costs foroperating their national data-collecting infrastructure.It is the cost of the continued operation of these systemsthat, in the European view, justifies its position.The European Organisation for the Exploitation ofMeteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) treaty containsa version of the European view. EUMETSATs"primary" objective is to "establish, maintain andexploit European systems of operational meteorologicalsatellites, taking into account as far as possible WMOrecommendations. EUMETSAT has "worldwideexclusive ownership of all data" generated by it'ssatellites or instruments. It makes some data sets"available" to the national weather services of WMOmembers and "distribution policy" is decided inaccordance with rules for determining whichEUMETSAT programs are mandatory or optional forits members.69Conflict between the different approaches surfacedat the global level when, at the WMO EleventhCongress in 1991, a number of European governmentsrequested that commercialization issues be studied todevelop future policies. A draft resolution wasconsidered by the Twelfth Congress which initiallydivided weather data into two tiers. The proposaladdressed both satellite and non-satellite data. Tier onecontained data that would continue to be open andfreely accessible. Tier two contained data subject torestrictions based on their likely commercialapplications. Tier one data types included in situ marinedata and climate data needed on a regional and globalscale and warnings and advisories to protect life andproperty. The second tier data contained restricted datato be identified at a later time. The restrictions wouldhave prohibited third parties from re-exporting datagathered by another nation. Exceptions were proposedto allow all data to be accessed at the cost ofreproduction for non-commercial educational andscientific purposes.The United States responded that the principle offree and unrestricted access must be formallyaffirmed.70 This position ultimately rested on United69 EUMETSAT Convention, Art. 2.1, Art 5.2 (b), Art 5.3 (b),and Art. 8.68 World Meteorological Organization, ExchangingMeteorological Data Guidelines on Relationships inCommercial Meteorological Activities: WMO Policy andPractice. WMO, Geneva, at 8, (1996).70 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, WMOAdopts a Resolution Governing the International Exchange o fMeteorological and Related Data and Products,, Vol. 76, No.8, at 1478 - 79, (1995) [hereinafter, Bulletin].