At 11:28 11/29/2005 -0800, Lan Barnes wrote: >On Tue, Nov 29, 2005 at 11:23:48AM -0800, Tracy R Reed wrote: >> Michael O'Keefe wrote: >> > Actually it's the opposite. >> > Digital maps are EXTREMELY hard to come by, BECOZ of the (handheld) GPS >> > market. They pay a LOT for those maps. It's why Garmin (for example) is >> >> I think you misunderstand. I understand that Garmin et al protect their >> maps. I mean that it should be possible to generate our own public >> domain map. There needs to be a mapping project. Someone with some GIS >> knowledge needs to set up a database whereby we can all note the GPS >> coordinates of all our streets and landmarks and everything that anyone >> would care about and put it into a database which can be used to >> generate maps. >> > >To me, copyrighting maps is like patenting the genome. The surface of >the world is what it is. Additionally, we've all already paid for the >satellite photos through our taxes.
Except that maps are NOT photographs. They are more of a cartoon, with extra information provided by the mapmaker. Things like street names, historical markers and distance legends don't show up in photos. It takes a lot of work to produce a good map. The problem with realizing this is that they are so cheap and commonplace. Very few maps are based on satellite photos. Most maps start as photos from a low-level flyover in a light plane. Tracy can elaborate. Then all that has to be pieced together, scaled appropriately, rendered to the cartoon, labeled and verified. Besides, even photographs are copyrighted. Otherwise Ansel Adams would never have been able to make a living. Gus "Even more familiar with charts" Wirth -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
