I'd seen a vague allusion to this but not actually heard the full response. Really interesting - Michael Jones of Google explaining why they don't use OSM data.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXDAFJTH6w#t=1m47s To summarise: the only reason is that Google don't think our licensing works; they didn't actually want to launch a competitor; if OSM had "got its legal act in order" they wouldn't have launched Map Maker against us and would have used our data. Being generally more disposed to the little guy and pretty sceptical about Google in particular, I take all of this with a Siberian saltmine or two. But what I'm puzzled about is that he says Google were talking to OSM about licensing for a year. Presumably this was prior to the launch of Map Maker. Map Maker was launched in July 2008. I was on the OSMF Board from summer 2007 to summer 2008, partly as the "legal guy", so would expect that "year" and some part of my year to have coincided. But I don't recall any mention of discussions with Google, either within OSMF or among the wider community. (I may be forgetful, of course.) Basically, I have no idea what he's going on about. Can anyone enlighten me? cheers Richard _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
