In Australia at least, compilation of data is copyrightable, even where the individual sources may not be. Databases which you could argue are just fact but still restricted by copyright include telephone directories (Whitepages) and public transport timetabling information (which our state government controls rather tightly and won't even release to Google Transit).

Just an extra data point: public transit timetables for Western Australia's capital, Perth, are provided to Google, and any member of the public can download the same data from a website. Conditions attached but no questions asked.

http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/TimetablesMaps/SpatialDataAc...

Don't worry. Google will cave eventually, then everyone will be praising the bureaucrats that stuck to their guns to get a windfall licensing deal out of Google!

The point is that the data should be available to the public under a license such as Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 (used for other government data). Governments aren't about making a profit and I doubt Google will pay a cent for this data anyway when other governments are giving it to them for free.

Read my post as high sarcasm...