On 24/03/2010 17:31, Phil Monger wrote: > No, no they don't. Yes, they do.
Over half of Ordnance Survey's income comes from local authorities and other government bodies who are forced to buy their mapping from OS. They're also forced to contribute data back to OS without any compensation. The idea that OS isn't a taxpayer funded organisation just because OS receives no funding directly from central government is clearly false. Local authorities are, in effect, subsidising OS and providing it with guaranteed income. Another thing your argument overlooks is that a huge amount of OS's data was collected and its infrastructure created before it became a trading fund. Even if it's "self-sustaining" now, it was built using taxpayers' money over the course of two hundred years. -- Jonathan (Jonobennett) _______________________________________________ newbies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/newbies
