Advancements in GIS map copyright protection schemes - a critical review

Dramatic advancements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and computer technologies resulted in a wide availability of rich-knowledge GIS digital vector maps that are easily accessible and downloadable through the world wide web. This led to the need of copyright protection systems to protect the rights of the producers of these maps. Unlike the research on copyright protection for raster/image data types, the research for vector map data is less documented. This article surveys and classifies the GIS vector map copyright protection research papers published between 2000 and 2014, towards a thorough understanding of the-state-of-the-art, addressing significant limitations of previous review articles, and outlining effective recommendations for future research directions.