Legal action by the Royal Mail is stopping job seekers from
using the internet to find jobs near their homes, it was claimed
today.
Royal Mail has sent a "cease and desist" letter to Ernest
Marples Ltd, the organisation that provides a post code API
(application program interface) that allows other web sites to use
post code searches.
Several sites have been hit. They include JobCentre ProPlus,
which allows job hunters to find a job near where they live. Today
its website carried
the notice "JobcentreProPlus is currently experiencing technical
difficulties because of ongoing legal action by Royal Mail. Our
provider of postcode data, ernestmarples.com, has been taken
offline because of legal action. Until we find an alternative
source, JobcentreProPlus may return inconsistent results."
A Royal Mail spokesman said: " We have not asked anyone to close
down a website. We have simply asked a third party to stop allowing
unauthorised access to Royal Mail data, in contravention of our
intellectual property rights."
Digital rights activist organisation
Open Rights Group is
campaigning for information developed with public money to be made
freely available.
Executive director Jim Killock said it was outrageous that Royal
Mail, which is cutting its staff, should be sacking workers and at
the same time trying to close a service that might help them find
work.
"Post codes were created with public money, so they need to be
used for the widest public benefit," he said. "Ernest Marples have
been showing how this can be done. Their ideas need to be legalised
for non-profit use, not shut down. Intellectual property rules need
to work for society, not the other way round."
Killock said other services facing closure include Planning
Alerts, which finds planning applications near your post code, and
The Straight Choice, which details election leaflets and their
claims by post code.
"An amicable solution to allow non-commercial use of post code
data would be easy to create, via a key given only to non-profit
organisations," he said.
The people behind ernestmarples.com are programmers Richard Pope
and Harry Metcalfe. Metcalfe is also a member of the Open Rights
Group's board. He has dissociated himself from the group's campaign
on this issue.