On Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:48:17 +0100, andrzej zaborowski wrote: >2009/12/11 Shalabh <shalab...@gmail.com>: >> Ok, heres a question I have been meaning to ask for long. What is the big >> deal if the big, bad G takes a chunk of data from OSM and uses it? Do I >> care? No. If anything, I would be happy that we created something worthy to >> be used by a corporation. As long as they dont restrict me from using data >> on OSM, which they in no way cant, I dont have a problem. If they dont 'give >> back' to the community, big deal!!
>It is a big deal to me, it's some kind of dream of a better world >where practically all geospatial data (also software if you're a FOSS >programmer) has to be free if you want to tap into the huge knowledge >base all humanity has built till now. You can already see big closed >software companies stay behind because they can't use my favourite >GPL-licensed library, they have to reimplement everything from scratch >while everyone else uses the free version and adds their own creations >to this ever-growing base. It's a virus. But it would appear that what is bad for "closed software companies" is also bad for government. (At least where there is a culture of corporations, I guess) government cannot be seen to be discriminatory to "closed software companies" or closed companies of any description really. Is government the good guys or the bad guys for you? >Google has a lot of data and are good at getting more, be it official >or crowdsourced. It would be a huge loss for the collective knowledge >of everyone if this data escapes the virus. I can't afford that loss, >maybe you can. What is being lost though? Brendan
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