alt Hacker NewsNot wanting to over-do it, but is there possibly an argument the data about geospatial should be in the commons and google have some obligation to put the data back into the commons?
I'm not arguing to a legal basis but if it's crowdsourced, then the inputs came from ordinary people. Sure, they signed to T&Cs.
Philosophically, I think knowledge, facts of the world as it is, even the constructed world, should be public knowledge not an asset class in itself.
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I’ve been saying this about Google Maps for years, especially their vast collection of public transport loading data and real time road speeds.
People are duped into thinking they’re doing some “greater good” by completing the in-app surveys and yet the data they give back is for Google’s exclusive use and, in fact, deepens their moat.
No. it should be owned by the owners of the land on which these objects are located. You should be able to provide access at different levels of detail to public or private entities that need said access and revoke it at your own will. May be make some money out of it.
3D artist can create a model of a space and offer rights to the owner of the land, who in turn can choose to create his own model or use the one provided by an artist.
In the US at least, "facts of the world as it is" are not generally copyrightable, though any creative process in the presentation of them may be.
There's an "illegal child labor" angle to it, I suspect, T&Cs be damned.
Do you expect every company to release all their data to the public as well or it's just because you're not invested in this one?
Four Square just open sourced their places dataset. https://location.foursquare.com/resources/blog/products/four...
Given how expensive it is to query Google places, would love a crowdsourced open-source places API.