There are a few different issues.
According to IP Australia ERSA is not a registered trademark and nor is iERSA. Trademarks and Copyright are two different things.
The only thing that I have copied in my application is the AirServices Australia copyright notice because according to the notice it says
"Unless specified otherwise, AIS Publications may be used only for viewing (in an unaltered form which retains this notice) for information purposes. "
So I am complying with their requirement to retain the notice. The PDFs that the user downloads from ASA is unaltered.
In respect to "Except as permitted above and by the Copyright Act 1968, no part of the AIS Publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, redistributed, republished or commercially exploited in any way without the prior written permission of Airservices Australia. "
I am not doing any of the above. The end user is the one downloading the ERSA, an in so reproducing and storing it on THEIR device. If anyone is liable its the user of the tool. ie. If you get caught with a radar detector you get fined not the manufacturer.
That aside, downloading the ERSA for the purposes for flight planning should be consider viewing for informational purposes and covered under the
Section 43A of the Copyright Act 1968 " (1) The
copyright in a
work, or an
adaptation of a
work, is not infringed by making a temporary reproduction of the
work or
adaptation as part of the technical process of making or receiving a communication."
The user receives the ERSA from ASA from their public webserver, and the Cache by its definition is a temporary store.
I am using Apple's Webview object in my application, which essentially means the user using Safari to view the files. How is this different from a user using Safari on their iPad or IE on their PC to download the PDF? Ok I'll answer that, its just damn easier!
Also the user could download the PDFs using their PC, and connect their iPhone/iPad to iTunes and manually transfer the PDFs to the application.
This is completely different from me downloading the entire ERSA and including in the application or hosting it on my own server, because that would be "reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, redistributed, republished"
At the end of the day, I'm not a lawyer, so I don't have a few million in the bank they can get out of me anyway.
In relation to being able to open other PDFs? That's a great idea, I'm going to add the ability to open other PDFs in the app, I can't believe I didn't think of that, as my DA40 POH and Checklists are in PDF format, which I've been using Goodreader to view.
