Most of them do not allow to pass on the data to third parties. There are presently different systems of licensing or selling such data. Some distributors have found an easy means to solve the problem by protecting their data sets from being copied. However, to look at the information only cannot be the final goal of the whole exercise. It is available on CD-ROM and a subset of their content as a diskette version.
Photographs illustrate the local flora, fauna and landscapes and support text.
Vector line work can be overlayed on raster imagery and maps. A limited set of GIS raster functions is available too. The user can access the GCE in four different modes. In script mode he is opposed to guided tours including practical exercises by varying the input parameters. The explore mode allows to select data by theme or region before downloading them to the hard disk.