alt Hacker News> In cartography, a trap street is a fictitious entry in the form of a misrepresented street on a map, often outside the area the map nominally covers, for the purpose of "trapping" plagiarists of the map who, if caught, would be unable to explain the inclusion of the "trap street" on their map as innocent.
Replies
nonethewiser • today at 3:20 PM
This is fascinating . I wonder what the mechanism was that punished someone who copied the map. Copyright laws? This appears to be an old strategy so im not sure thats the case.
Other than some sort of social punishment I don’t see the cost for the copier. For the original author there is a cost of making your map less accurate on purpose.
➕ show 2 replies
Intentional publishing of false information as true should be punishable.