4 hours ago
Hello,
My name is Eli, and I am developing WeatherWatch, an iPhone and web weather-radar application currently in beta testing.
I am writing to request explicit permission to display recent Blitzortung lightning observations in WeatherWatch.
I understand that Blitzortung is a volunteer, non-commercial project; that its observations are provided for private and entertainment purposes; and that they must not be presented as an official warning or life-safety service. I also understand that commercial use normally is not permitted, which is why I will not proceed without your written approval.
WeatherWatch includes official weather warnings from government sources and may eventually offer an optional paid “Max” subscription. The proposed Blitzortung lightning layer would:
Could you please confirm:
Thank you for considering the request and for the work your contributors do.
Best regards,
Eli
WeatherWatch
My name is Eli, and I am developing WeatherWatch, an iPhone and web weather-radar application currently in beta testing.
I am writing to request explicit permission to display recent Blitzortung lightning observations in WeatherWatch.
I understand that Blitzortung is a volunteer, non-commercial project; that its observations are provided for private and entertainment purposes; and that they must not be presented as an official warning or life-safety service. I also understand that commercial use normally is not permitted, which is why I will not proceed without your written approval.
WeatherWatch includes official weather warnings from government sources and may eventually offer an optional paid “Max” subscription. The proposed Blitzortung lightning layer would:
- Remain available to all users without requiring a Max subscription.
- Be clearly labeled as unofficial community lightning observations.
- Never create, modify, verify, rank, or trigger weather warnings or push notifications.
- Never be used to tell users that an area is safe or unsafe.
- Include a visible disclaimer directing users to official weather warnings.
- Clearly credit and link to Blitzortung.org and its contributors.
- Be retrieved through one WeatherWatch intermediary server so requests would not increase with the number of app users.
- Use conservative polling and caching limits set by Blitzortung.
- Display only recent observations on the map without offering raw-data downloads.
- Not permanently archive or sell the raw lightning data.
Could you please confirm:
- Whether this use can be approved despite WeatherWatch being an application that may contain optional paid features.
- Whether keeping the lightning layer completely free would make the use acceptable.
- Whether the data may be processed and cached on our server solely for displaying the map layer.
- Whether using the Saratoga-generated placefile is acceptable if Saratoga separately approves it.
- What polling interval, cache duration, attribution, disclaimer, and CC BY-SA requirements must be followed.
- Whether WeatherWatch would need to operate a Blitzortung detector or receive separate data credentials.
- Whether there are any other technical or licensing conditions we must meet.
Thank you for considering the request and for the work your contributors do.
Best regards,
Eli
WeatherWatch
