15 C.F.R. Subpart A—General
Title 15 - Commerce and Foreign Trade
(a) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) produces electronic navigational charts (ENCs) as one of its products under its Nautical Charting Program. According to Federal regulations, official NOAA ENCs® meet nautical chart carriage requirements when used in a type-approved display system, such as an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). NOAA distributes these official ENCs to the public for free over its Web site on the Internet. This Part establishes the requirements by which entities may be certified to download, redistribute, repackage, or in some cases reformat, official NOAA ENCs and retain the NOAA ENC's official status. When a NOAA ENC® retains its official status, it will comply with Federal chart carriage requirements. These requirements for re-distributing NOAA ENC data or incorporating it into value-added navigational products are to ensure the quality and content of official NOAA ENCs remains intact throughout the redistribution process. No other processes result in redistributed NOAA ENC products that comply with Federal chart carriage requirements. (b) Two types of certification are offered. The first type, “Certified NOAA ENC Distributor” (CED), covers NOAA ENC downloading, exact copying, and redistribution of those copies. The second type, “Certified NOAA ENC Value Added Distributor” (CEVAD), permits reformatting official NOAA ENCs into a System Electronic Navigational Chart (SENC) using type-approved software, and distribution of that SENC. Both types of certification permit, but do not require, compression, encryption, and packaging with other data. Because NOAA ENC® data is the primary concern of this rule, and it is mandatory for certification that the official NOAA ENCs remain unaltered for positional accuracy and informational content, NOAA is, in effect, certifying that a CED's or CEVAD's products contain official NOAA ENC data, and therefore meets chart carriage requirements. (c) Any entity may continue to download from an official NOAA ENC® Web site and use NOAA ENCs for any purpose. As long as it is not redistributed, that ENC will still be considered as official Federal data. If the NOAA ENC is successfully imported unaltered into a type-approved system, it will comply with Federal nautical chart carriage requirements. While without certification anyone can download an official NOAA ENC for any use, if a NOAA ENC® is redistributed by an uncertified entity to another entity, the NOAA ENC is no longer considered as official Federal data and thus does not comply with Federal chart carriage requirements. An example follows. (1) One example is if an uncertified individual downloads a NOAA ENC and uses it according to Federal requirements, that individual will be meeting Federal chart carriage requirements. If an uncertified tug boat company has 9 boats in its fleet and an individual on one of the boats downloads a NOAA ENC and uses it according to Federal requirements that individual will be meeting Federal chart carriage requirements. However, if that same uncertified tug boat company downloads a NOAA ENC and redistributes it to its 9 boats, the NOAA ENC will not be considered official Federal data and therefore the 9 boats will not be meeting Federal carriage requirements. The company should become a CED or CEVAD under this part in order to be able to redistribute NOAA ENC's and retain the official status of those ENC's. (2) To reiterate, NOAA ENCs must not be redistributed by an uncertified entity if the end output needs to have official NOAA ENCs in it that will comply with Federal carriage requirements. Any company, entity or individual must be certified if the goal is to redistribute NOAA ENCs and have those NOAA ENCs remain as official Federal data and as such continue to meet Federal carriage requirements administered by the Coast Guard. Certain material listed in this section is incorporated by reference with the approval of the Director of the Federal Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. The materials listed in this section are incorporated by reference in the corresponding sections noted. The materials are available for purchase at the corresponding addresses noted below, and all are available for inspection at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) or at the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230. For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call (202) 741–6030, or go to: http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/code_of_federal_regulations/ibr_locations.php. (a) The material listed below is available for purchase from the International Hydrographic Bureau, 4 quai Antoine 1er, B.P. 445, MC 98011 MONACO CEDEX; telephone: (377) 93.10.81.00; fax: (377) 93.10.81.40; e-mail: [email protected]. Orders may be submitted by letter, fax, or e-mail. (1) IHO Technical Resolution A3.11—“ENC/SENC Distribution Option”, as published in the “Resolutions of the International Hydrographic Organization” updated June 2005, incorporation by reference approved for §995.26. (2) [Reserved] (b) [Reserved] (a) For further guidance you may obtain the following: (1) IEC 61174—The International Electrotechnical Commission identified and described the necessary performance tests and checks for an International Maritime Organization (IMO) compliant ECDIS. The IMO Performance Standards permit National Maritime Safety Administrations to consider ECDIS as the functional equivalent to charts required by Regulation V, Chapter 20 of the 1974 SOLAS Convention. IEC Publication 61174, dated August 1998, can be purchased from the IEC Web site: http://www.iec.ch. (2) IHO Special Publication S57—The IHO Transfer Standard for Hydrographic Data, edition 3.1, dated November 2000, describes the data structure and format to be used for the exchange of ENC data, product specification for the production of ENC data, and an updating profile. IHO S–57 documentation is available for free download at http://www.iho.shom.fr. Send written requests to the International Hydrographic Bureau, 4 quai Antoine 1er, B.P. 445, MC 98011 MONACO CEDEX; telephone: (377) 93.10.81.00; e-mail: [email protected]. (3) IHO Special Publication S58—The IHO Validation Checks for Hydrographic Data, edition 2.0, dated October 2003, describes the validation checks to be used on ENC data. This document was formally published as S–57 Appendix B.1, Annex C, but has been renamed to S–58 due to the S–57 publication having been frozen (i.e. will not change) for a fixed time period. IHO S–58 documentation is available for free download at http://www.iho.shom.fr. Send written requests to the International Hydrographic Bureau, 4 quai Antoine 1er, B.P. 445, MC 98011 MONACO CEDEX; telephone: (377) 93.10.81.00; e-mail: [email protected]. (b) [Reserved] Certified NOAA ENC Distributor (CED) means an entity that is certified as a distributor of NOAA ENC files by NOAA. This certification indicates that the distributor meets certain requirements (in Subparts A, B, and D of this part) that ensure timely and accurate dissemination of NOAA ENC data. Certified NOAA ENC Value Added Distributor (CEVAD) means an entity that creates a derived product that has been produced from NOAA ENC files using a process certified by NOAA. This certification indicates that the CEVAD meets certain requirements (in Subparts A, C, and D of this part) that ensure timely and accurate dissemination of NOAA ENC data in a non-ENC format. Derived product means a navigational product produced by transforming the NOAA ENC files to another format while preserving the content and accuracy. It may contain information from other sources. Distributor means a person or company that redistributes a NOAA ENC to end users in its original format. Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) means the internationally adopted computer-assisted navigation system which, when complying with all of the required specifications, can be accepted as the up-to-date chart required by V/20 of the 1974 SOLAS Convention. Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) means a database, standardized as to content, structure, and format, issued for use with ECDIS on the authority of government authorized hydrographic offices. The ENC contains all the chart information necessary for safe navigation and may contain supplementary information in addition to that contained in the paper chart (e.g., sailing directions), which may be considered necessary for safe navigation. Entity means one person, one person within a company, or one company. NOAA ENC® means Electronic Navigational Charts produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA ENC files comply with the IHO S–57 standard, Edition 3.1 and the ENC Product Specification. The phrase “NOAA ENC” is a registered trademark and may not be used without permission. Redistributed means to distribute again, either as a direct copy or in a different way. A redistributed NOAA ENC is one that has been downloaded from an official NOAA ENC Web site by one entity and provided to another entity. System Electronic Navigational Chart (SENC) means a database resulting from the transformation of the ENC by ECDIS for appropriate use, updates to the ENC by appropriate means and other data added by the mariner. It is this database that is actually accessed by ECDIS for the display generation and other navigational functions, and is equivalent to an up-to-date paper chart. The SENC may also contain information from other sources. Value Added Distributor means a person or company that redistributes a NOAA ENC with additional data included or in a different format to create newly derived products used by end users. CED Certified NOAA ENC Distributor CEVAD Certified NOAA ENC Value Added Distributor CRC Cyclical Redundancy Checksum ECDIS Electronic Chart Display and Information System ENC Electronic Navigational Chart IEC International Electrotechnical Commission IHO International Hydrographic Organization IMO International Maritime Organization ISO International Organization for Standardization NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOS National Ocean Service OCS Office of Coast Survey SENC System Electronic Navigational Chart SOLAS Safety of Life at Sea VAD Value Added Distributor (a) The Office of Coast Survey, NOAA, may charge a fee for costs incurred to process each request for certification pursuant to 33 U.S.C. 892b(b)(1)(C) and 892b(b)(2). The amount of the fee, if one is charged, will be determined by the Director, Office of Coast Survey, and charged to all Applicants based on the time and effort involved. (b) If a fee is charged, it will be charged for each application for certification submitted by an Applicant. A fee may also be charged for resubmissions of revised requests that were initially unacceptable and are sent in within 90 days as described in §995.11(b)(2). Distributors and value added distributors certified under this part shall indemnify and hold harmless the U.S. Government for any loss, claim, damage, or liability of any kind, the extent caused by the negligence of certified distributors or value added distributors or their employees, arising out of the use by a distributor or value added distributor, or any party acting on its behalf or under its authorization, of NOAA data.
Title 15: Commerce and Foreign Trade
PART 995—CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR DISTRIBUTORS OF NOAA HYDROGRAPHIC PRODUCTS
Subpart A—General
§ 995.1 Purpose and scope.
§ 995.2 Incorporation by reference.
§ 995.3 Availability of other publications.
§ 995.4 Definitions.
§ 995.5 Abbreviations.
§ 995.6 Fees.
§ 995.7 Liability.
