Fellow folks who use GPS: I collect all the tracks using my DeLorme PN-40SE. Although it’s not perfect, it’s pretty doggoned good. I’ll do a product review someday after I figure out a few more features. In the meantime, it tells me where I am and shows an underlying map, and collects track points. I use these track points in a product called DeLorme Topo North America, the newly updated version of DeLorme Topo USA 8 that I used for the 2010 season. I’ve always been a little iffy about including DeLorme’s copyrighted material, but take a look at the license that comes with DeLorme Topo North America. I had to print this off as I read it—I can’t find it anywhere in the DeLorme system files!
Website Map Display Rights. You may display on your personal, business or institutional website static [that means non-interactive—all the maps on this site are static] map images derived from the System, provided that you include the Legend indicated below and that you provide a link to the DeLorme Web site at www.delorme.com from any page featuring a DeLorme map image. …
Legend. Any System output that is provided to a third party [that’s you] must include the following credit and copyright notice: “© 2010 DeLorme (www.delorme.com) DELORME TOPO NORTH AMERICA”.
In other words, I can lay out my GPS tracks atop their maps using DeLorme Topo North America, and plop that map right onto my web pages, as long as I give them credit. I have added their required notice to the blog footer, so it appears on every page, if for some reason I forget to include it in the map.
Oh, and the tracks themselves? Well, even though I use DeLorme equipment to collect the track, the tracks are mine—and copyrighted. I add the usual disclaimer here to note that I’m using consumer-grade GPS gear plus the positioning of the GPS on the motorcycle is not optimum (it should be atop my helmet, but that’s not safe), plus I may simply make mistakes. I do think they may prove useful, but (here comes the lawyer-type talk): don’t use them for anything! (Well, they’re pretty if you like maps.) Seriously, I’ve received comments that my tracks have helped people find trails and that they enjoy them. Good! That’s why they’re here! Caveat: the data was as accurate as I could make it on the day I collected the data. Conditions change, sometimes overnight.