Why doesn CHS make its charts available for free like the United States does?
Internationally, the United States is the only country where electronic charts are available at no charge. Canada and the U.S. have different domestic, fiscal and social policy. In the U.S. copyright laws prohibit the federal government from claiming copyright protection for the information it produces. In Canada, by contrast, there is no barrier to the government exercising its copyright, or from earning revenues from such copyright. As such, there is an expectation that CHS will earn revenues and royalties from the sale of charts and publications in order to partially cover the cost of publishing, distributing and maintaining those products. Surveying and charting benefit our nation as a whole, therefore the costs of conducting hydrographic surveying and producing the charts are borne by the government and funded through parliamentary appropriations. Anyone accruing a specific benefit from the use of the derived products is expected to contribute by paying a portion of the incrementa
